$100 OIL? CNBC Explores New Strategy

$100 Oil Coming?
CNBC Asks "Black Gold Stranglehold" Author
Craig R. Smith outlines his strategy to make the U.S. oil independent

Aired: Sept 21, 2005
Outline/Transcript -- Watch it!

MARK: Hurricane Rita is now heading for Gulf of Mexico oil rigs. It appears to be a big, bad storm. How much will gas and oil prices rise? $100 oil? $4-$5 gas? Today we turn to Craig R. Smith, author of Black Gold Stranglehold for some answers. Craig, are we talking about a spike to $100 or a sustained $100 per barrel?

CRS: Yes, I see a spike to $100+ given that Hurricane Rita is aimed directly at the Gulf oil fields. I think we should expect higher natural gas, oil and gasoline prices in the near term.

DAVID: I agree 100%.

CRS: I am concerned about the consumer being bounced around in 2005-2006 as a result of higher prices.

DAVID: Looking at the problem longer term, I assume you would agree that prices are not coming back down to what we saw one year ago. Tell us what your new book is about?

CRS: I think the prognostications of $45 oil are very optimistic. What we face today is the result of 30 years of a lack of a comprehensive policy on building refineries, building distribution, and frankly becoming more energy independent. We produce about 8.7 million barrels of oil daily. I believe that we can increase production to reach the 20 million barrels we use per day.

MARK: No way! Come on. HOW? HOW?

CRS: I believe that we can do that Mark. What we have to do is tap into the 66 billion barrels in ANWR, the Rand corporation just announced we have 1.1 trillion barrels of oil in the Great Basin.

MARK: But how much is recoverable?

CRS: At $70 a barrel, a lot of it is recoverable!

MARK: In the typical oil field you only recover about 30-35% of what's there.

CRS: That is correct, with conventional wisdom, but I believe, and we outline this in the book, Black Gold Stranglehold, that we have passed on the deep abiotic oil in the earth. If we drill deep enough I believe that we will discover unbelievable amounts of oil. I don't believe the world is running out of oil. I take a contrarian position to that theory...

MARK: Whoa! Wait a minute, this is Jules Verne "Journey to the Center of the Earth"?...

CRS: No, I'm referring to science available which is confirming that oil is plentiful if we drill deeper. I think the energy industry needs to take a whole new look at where we are going in the future. I think America can lead the charge in this area. We should build new refineries, new pipelines, new distribution ...

MARK: Where? Where are we going to build new refineries?

CRS: How about Arizona in Yuma county? Why is it being fought by environmentalists -- when there's nothing down there but rattlesnakes and gila monsters?

MARK/DAVID: Hahahah!

DAVID: Craig, it's funny because you are ending up with high oil price prediction, but are taking different route. You don't adhere to the running of of oil, peak production theory?

CRS: No, I really don't. If you look at Mendeleev's research. Look at Russia, they will likely surpass Saudi Arabia for oil production next year. They embraced this technology back in the 1950s and 60s. Have you heard about any problems with energy out of Russia? I think soon you will see this new science embraced here and hopefully we can reach a balance between environmental safety and the craziness we have seen from the extreme environmental movement's fringe. Yes environmental concern has produced cleaner air and water, but often it has been too restrictive. We need to look at how America can depend on energy to continue to grow and we should embrace the technology to get us there.

DAVID: What do you think of the recent Energy Bill passed?

CRS: I think it is a good basic bill, some bill is always better than no bill. It is the best we've seen in 20 years, but we must go further. We need to Pursue ANWR with 65 billion barrels (and I think there's more), deep drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and the Great Basin. I truly believe we have domestic resources -- between the U.S., Canada, Mexico and Venezuela -- to be energy independent in a relatively short period of time.

MARK: Thanks Craig Smith, author of Black Gold Stranglehold, CEO of SwissAmerica.com


Related Stories
PRE-ORDER: "Black Gold Stranglehold: The Myth of Scarcity and the Politics of Oil"
- $26.95, HARDCOVER ($37.95 CANADA)AVAILABLE OCTOBER 2005 ...In Black Gold Stranglehold, Jerome Corsi and Craig Smith expose the fraudulent science that has made America so vulnerable: the belief that oil is a fossil fuel and that it is a finite resource.

Understanding the Oil-to-Gold Ratio by Craig R. Smith -- September 25, 2005 -- Gold should be $975 an ounce using the historic gold-to-oil ratio of 15 to 1. At $470 +/- an ounce, gold is still very undervalued in relationship to oil, which means gold is the right place to be for long term growth and inflation protection... but which type of gold?...

Hurricane Rita vs. oil rigs ... here we go again by Dr. Jerome Corsi-- September 21, 2005 -- WND...Global warming alarmists like to cry "Wolf!" every time a natural disaster occurs, regardless of the soundness of their data or the rigor of their mathematical computer models. What we should all be concerned about is that we need more oil refineries, right now. Hurricane Rita is about to make that point forcefully. LISTEN (1:43 trt) as Dr. Corsi explains the premise of "Black Gold Stanglehold"

Hydrocarbon Heresy: Rocks into Gas -Harvard-- March 2005 -- Geologists have long believed that the world's supply of oil and natural gas came from the decay of primordial plant and animal matter, which, over the course of millions of years, turned into petroleum. But new research coauthored by Dudley Herschbach, Baird research professor of science and recipient of the 1986 Nobel Prize in chemistry, questions that thinking.


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