rcaldwell, I have to agree, this site is still full of clowns who do not trade, have no ties to any position work or otherwise in the world markets, capital raising, etc.
To allow oil drilling in the gulf by BP when they discovered reserves estimates at 3.4 billion barrels of oil should have been a wake up call. Right off the coast of texas. But it wasnt'.
I fund, raise money, for Domestic Drilling projects here in the US. We raise well over 3 million a month for projects. Land drilling by midlevel oil companies, (Which is who I raise money for) is increasing as awarness of the overall "Future" of "Investing" in this country is broad'n. In other words, the guys that I deal with want Tax Breaks and great risk/reward, hence Oil Wells, which your able to write off 100% of the investment against gross income, no matter if you find oil or not, also your able to write 15% of every dollar pulled outa the ground off, the other 85 or so is taxed as income and revenue stream rolls in every month for 40 years, depending on the well. catch is, you gota fall under the Private Placement rules...and for me to deal with you, you have to have a minum net worth of 5 million and pay yourself, at least 600k a year. Otherwise, I don't deal with you. The problem....very limited individuals that fall in the latter ball park and very limited individuals in that ball park that have BALLS to do it.
So, let Russian Drill off the coast is a major mistake but not the end of the world. It will cost them far more money to drill platform style, it will take decades to even start to pull the oil, if they even can, from the sands. And oil has to stay in the high 80s for them to break even.
Just because you find oil, doesn't mean its gona come outa the ground....there is a lot that can go wrong.
So, the US should drill on land, and find 3 .5 million barrels per well and a few trillion cubic feet of gas, and do this in loads. Every 2 out of 3 of our wells is in production and if more companies, drilled, more oil would be found.
There is a boat load of nati gas in this country as well.
The move by the Russian's is to show the world how WEAK obama is.
PERIOD.