00:03:44.860Yeah. And those are kind of the, you know, that's what we refer to as petrochemicals.
00:03:50.340And those are kind of the really big things. All of the little stuff, you know, when they talk
00:03:54.900about, you know, medicines and I don't know, paint, drywall, whatever I'm looking at in here,
00:04:00.060That is a tiny, tiny fraction of crude, of our consumption of crude, because it doesn't take a lot.
00:04:07.960Okay, so again, we'll narrow it down a little bit, and we'll just go to fuel sources, so cars, trucks, diesels, whatever type of fuel source.
00:04:16.420So we have this crude oil, we get out of the earth, and then there's a refining process.
00:04:21.320Now, there's different kinds of crude oil.
00:04:24.620Could you delineate between the different kinds?
00:04:26.740yeah well basically you have uh a light sweet crude which is what is predominantly produced
00:04:33.860in the united states and then you have your heavier sour crudes um which is by the way
00:04:39.460u.s companies named it like that that's rude i don't think it's nice that you guys get to be the
00:04:44.340sweet one and we're the sour i think that's some hard marketing but nonetheless okay so
00:04:49.940So, yeah, that actually came from the taste of it back in the old days.
00:05:09.080So all of this is based on API gravity, which is the oil's density is compared to water.
00:05:16.660So, you know, the gravity of oil in the United States has a higher number, so that'll be around 60. And the heavier the oil or the more dense it is, the lower that gravity number goes.
00:05:33.200So, you know, what you have there around Alberta is at about a 40 API gravity, so it's much heavier than the light suite.
00:05:45.800And it's just different, you know, it has a little sulfur in it, it's a little heavier in density, it's got a little more tar in it, but it's still the base, you know, carbon compound, you know, molecular chain, it's just a little bit different.
00:06:01.140So they can all be used for anything is the important part.
00:06:05.160Right. Now, from what I understand, the oil that, let's say, we'll focus on Alberta, that Alberta has in its resource, it sells cheaper, but is more expensive to refine. Is that the basis of it?
00:06:21.000um it is slightly more expensive to define to refine but um the way our refineries are set up
00:06:32.240in the united states is historically we relied on foreign oil you know throughout our history
00:06:39.580so we built our refineries to refine that foreign oil and now that we produce so much of our own
00:06:45.580um we don't need it as much um so it is slightly more expensive but the it's it's so much cheaper
00:06:53.080that it actually by using canadian oil it actually lowers our gas prices um that's why we use so much
00:07:00.820of it okay so what that means is your infrastructure has been set up and then i'm going to come back
00:07:07.460to a question in a second your infrastructure over the years has been set up uh meaning the
00:07:12.700refining plants, let's say, to actually refine our type of oil or foreign oil in general, not
00:07:19.020your oil, so that in order to start refining your oil, your type of oil at a much higher level in
00:07:26.140order just to feed US need, you would have to change all of that infrastructure, which I'm
00:07:32.460assuming would take time and be incredibly expensive. Right. So what we do is we just
00:07:39.960blend the two together. And we can take the two and put them together and still reach a viscosity
00:07:46.720or an API gravity that works with our refineries so we can use them both. A lot of people think
00:07:53.700that we don't refine our own oil. We do. We refine 9 million barrels a day of our own oil.
00:08:01.220But all of that is mixed and blended with Canadian oil, Mexican oil. It's blended with
00:08:08.020heavier oils. So they put the two oils together, they reach a specific gravity and viscosity where
00:08:14.440it still meets what the refinery can handle, and that's what they refine. So if we had to refine
00:08:22.720strictly our own oil, we would have to change a lot of things in our refineries, but we're able
00:08:28.640to blend it where we can still refine a lot of ours. Can I ask a question? Yeah. Why would you,
00:08:36.380because you guys have obviously enough oil reserve was it just about not finding the oil
00:08:41.780reserve earlier on and that's why you started to it doesn't make sense for any sort of rational
00:08:47.240person to say why would a nation any nation depend well canada does it but i understand us a little
00:08:52.600bit better why would we depend on why would the united states depend on somewhere else um and for
00:08:59.680their oil if you guys had oil deposits why why go out of state come back in state kind of thing
00:09:06.500Yeah. So historically, we relied heavily on OPEC for our oil, which is a heavy oil.
00:09:12.520And that's because we didn't have the technology to produce the oil that we have in the United States.
00:09:19.360The oil that we produce today is much deeper in the ground and it's in a much tighter rock.
00:09:26.440And what that means is the permeability and porosity of that rock is very tight.
00:09:32.620If you look at a rock under a microscope and you zoom in far enough, it will look like a piece of Swiss cheese.
00:09:39.780It has tiny little like molecular pores in it.
00:09:43.780And that is what the oil and gas flow through. Right.
00:09:48.260So our oil is much deeper and it's in much tighter rocks.
00:09:52.320So it's much more expensive and much harder to get to.
00:09:54.940But before about 2005, we couldn't efficiently extract that oil.
00:10:01.420So we were heavily dependent on foreign nations.
00:10:06.340Basically, what happened was we found and extracted all of the easy stuff, which is what they call conventional wells, where you just drill a straight hole and the oil flows out.0.82
00:10:27.660But everything we produce today is basically the last, we're about to 20 years, is what we've been doing for the last 20 years with technology.
00:10:37.160Before that, we couldn't have ever produced that oil.
00:10:42.080So, again, so your technology has shifted to the point where you can get at that oil.
00:10:49.120And I know I'm going to come back to this in a second.
00:10:50.880are there, I'm assuming, stronger, more significant impacts to the environment
00:10:58.020accessing that type of oil or no? I would say the biggest thing is water usage.
00:11:07.640So, you know, to get the type of, to get the oil we get today, that's where the hydraulic fracturing
00:11:12.540comes in. And they also do quite a bit of fracturing in Canada as well. Not in the oil
00:11:19.860sands but uh farther north where they have lighter oil there's light oil in canada as well it's not
00:11:25.740just the united states um so yeah you that's where hydraulic fracturing comes in you're talking about
00:11:32.580using enormous amounts of water because you're just injecting this water under very high pressure
00:11:38.220deep into these wells and and that water cracks that rock it basically fractures it and cracks
00:11:45.600it and then the sand that they put in the water goes into those cracks and it props it open and
00:11:52.480it keeps those cracks propped open and if you can imagine water like if you're standing on a beach
00:11:58.920and you know water washes up on the beach and you see it kind of disappear down into the sand
00:12:03.700that's exactly what happens when oil flows from a well that's been hydraulically fractured
00:12:09.020that all that is seeping through all of this sand that we packed in there it's really pretty cool
00:12:15.140and that's what that's what fracking is that is what fracking is yes so so when i hear people
00:12:23.220talk about how horrible fracking is we can't do it this is a horrible thing why are they making
00:12:29.560that argument is it because it sounds very destabilizing i'm not gonna lie like like we
00:12:35.540don't get any earthquakes up here but it feels like it's it's sort of destabilizing basis of
00:12:43.680you know what we live on top of am i is that is that the argument is that the problem with fracking
00:12:50.960the biggest problem with fracking is actually you know if you pump um a hundred thousand barrels of
00:12:58.800water into the ground which you know would be a little over four million gallons right if you
00:13:06.960pump that much water into the ground and you frack this well then that when that well flows
00:13:13.360all of that water comes back out and right that water's not any good like you cannot right uh you
00:13:21.120can reuse that water but only to frack again like uh we we have the technology to recycle that water
00:13:29.280where it's actually able to drink but it's so expensive we don't do it so the problem with
00:13:33.920fracking is getting rid of that water and right and so what they've been doing they've been
00:13:40.720injecting it back down in the ground in what they call injection wells or disposal wells so they'll
00:13:47.280drill a well into a very porous geologic formation that is kind of like an underground river that
00:13:55.120exists and they'll pump that water into there the problem is there's fault lines yeah well here we
00:14:03.920are and and when you when you when you flood a fault line you reduce the the friction that's
00:14:10.080keeping those those faults from sliding and causing earthquakes and when you pump a lot of
00:14:14.800water in there if you're near a fault line you you cause earthquakes and here where i live our
00:14:21.280earthquakes went up by like thousands of a percent um initially they couldn't figure out why but they
00:14:29.360eventually figured out what was happening and right so they they located the wells that were
00:14:35.040were near fault lines and then they stopped using them to dispose of the water and the earthquake
00:14:40.140stopped. So it sounds so simple when you hear that out loud that, you know, scientists couldn't
00:14:48.360figure this out. It's actually very simple. You pump a ton of water into a fault line,
00:14:53.500something's going to give up eventually due to erosion and everything else.
00:14:57.860I'm assuming all the water we're using is not, is freshwater too, right?
00:15:01.820um we use fresh water but we also reuse frack water um so water that we yeah yeah i'm just
00:15:11.420thinking i mean obviously people talk about the scarcity of fresh water and the possible scarcity
00:15:16.700of fresh water so i guess that could be yet another argument they would make and they'd say
00:15:20.620listen we can't be using this resource that is used for oh so many other things in order to do
00:15:26.700this job but if you're telling me they you know take x amount out of wherever and they can just
00:15:32.780consistently reuse it then i think that's trying to solve that that problem right yes okay so
00:15:40.140initially they only used fresh water because they they didn't know how to recycle the what
00:15:46.540they call flow back water the water that returns after the frack so initially early on it was just
00:15:51.980freshwater. Now it's mostly reusing recycled water, but there's still freshwater used
00:15:58.220when they don't have access to recycled water. Right, right, right. And it does make me
00:16:04.800uncomfortable to think, you know, oh, we're just going to store it in the earth. It's just kind
00:16:11.260of like, what do we do with our leftover nuclear weapons? I know, I'm going to put them in a big
00:16:15.740concrete block and put it in the ocean sometimes we're so so dark i'm like all i want to say to
00:16:23.740those people is didn't you see godzilla it didn't it didn't end well like i just you know and then
00:16:31.260my mind goes to superman 4 you know he takes them all and he throws them at the sun um these are our
00:16:37.260you know the best solutions that we possibly have okay so let's go back to what's going on
00:16:42.860sort of politically right now, because obviously we have Trump saying there's going to be a 25%
00:16:50.140tariff on everything we've ever made. Let's be honest, it won't be on oil. He'll just keep that
00:16:57.220caveat out, but nobody's going to talk about that just yet. But let's say it's across the board,
00:17:01.960because the United States is still relying very heavily on Canadian oil and foreign oil. As you've
00:17:13.200said, they've made no such switches and they rely on that based on the infrastructure.
00:17:19.760And so the notion that we need to drill more, which obviously was Trump's big focus, drill,
00:17:26.740baby drill. Can you explain a little bit of what's gone on in your industry over the past little
00:17:32.600while and how that is true, how that is needed or not needed or how you see it? Yeah, it's pretty
00:17:39.440funny. We had to listen to this drill baby drill for the last two years. And for the last two years,
00:17:46.480I've been telling everyone, this is not a thing. We're not going to do this. This is not going to
00:17:51.100happen. Uh, and as, and you know, the oil companies, especially big oil, you know, they
00:17:57.280came out and, and basically repeated everything Donald Trump said and gave them, him their full
00:18:03.760support. Um, and then the moment he got elected, the moment he got elected, they said, yeah,
00:18:10.500we're not, we're not doing that. We're not, you know what I mean? Like, so they got them into
00:18:16.020office so they could get their tax breaks and their regulations cut. And then as soon as they
00:18:20.260got them there they're like yeah we're not we're not drilling like that's not we're not going to
00:18:24.320do that um the fact of the matter is go ahead yeah go ahead no no no go no we're we're producing
00:18:32.440more oil and natural gas than any country in the world has ever produced uh but more importantly
00:18:38.300we don't need a lot of drilling rigs to produce because our technology has gotten so great
00:18:43.560that we can produce what we produce today with 20 percent of the rigs we needed you know 20 years
00:18:51.200ago we just can that's how efficient yeah so even if we wanted to ramp up production a bunch it
00:18:57.980wouldn't have anything to do with drilling it really wouldn't it the drilling wouldn't increase
00:19:03.220right so but also because you guys aren't using your own oil
00:19:09.120right and this is i can't wrap my mind around this i get it i get that um you can't necessarily
00:19:17.620produce it all but it becomes very confusing i think to the average citizen to think you know
00:19:25.220and which is a really easy lie for him to sell because if you're buying oil from alberta
00:19:31.200but in the same breath the united states is buying out oil from alberta and in the same breath you're
00:19:36.760saying, we're producing more oil than we ever have, and we could use 20% of the rigs that we
00:19:41.740ever used, people are like, well, why can't the United States government then, and I know the
00:19:49.740answer, but I'd like to hear, why can't they control prices? Why on earth would we rely on
00:19:55.820the Middle East or Canada or anyone else for oil when our gas prices pop off, when we have the
00:20:04.140resource? And I say we, not as a Canadian, but as an American. Yeah. Well, as you know, oil prices
00:20:11.000are dictated on a global market and OPEC controls nearly half of the global market. And over the
00:20:19.300last few years, we have increased production significantly in the United States. As we
00:20:25.360increase production, OPEC just continues to decrease to keep the price high because it's
00:20:31.100traded globally. And the reason OPEC continues to decrease is because the demographics in those
00:20:38.780nations in the Middle East have changed drastically. And you have to understand that these countries
00:20:44.600and the people that live in those societies rely heavily on that oil revenue. And so if you imagine
00:20:52.560Saudi Arabia, $20 oil, they were all driving Lamborghinis. It was great. Well, now they have0.70
00:20:59.900a much larger population. The government has a much larger financial burden to take care of
00:21:10.060these people, so they need oil to be much more expensive just to meet their budgets. They've
00:21:15.780basically outgrown themselves, and these are growing pains, so they need $60, $70 oil so
00:21:22.880they're not running huge budget deficits, so they keep decreasing supply to keep the price up,
00:21:28.780basically which is kind of crazy when you think because what that means is they're selling less
00:21:34.380and as they sell less at a higher it gets very supply and demand right so right if they're
00:21:40.060selling less at a higher price you would think well if you lowered the price more people would
00:21:45.580buy but there's only a certain level of consumption need right right like like an actual need there's
00:21:51.900only so many cars people are driving in the world so if the consumption stays relatively consistent
00:21:58.780It makes sense to make sure that those barrels cost as much as possible, because people, it's not like something you don't need, right? It's an essential resource. So it's not like, well, I'm just not going to buy a new phone this month, even though I know the plastics in the phone come from oil, but you get my drill.
00:22:17.440It's not like that. We need it. So if we need it and we need it for all of these different things, there's no way the demand ever changes. So they fluctuate. They purposefully manipulate and fluctuate supply in order to control the price.
00:22:37.080then why wouldn't the united states i'm going to say a four-letter word here for a u.s person but
00:22:44.120why wouldn't the united states consider nationalizing this resource
00:22:48.300uh outside outside of the capitalism but why would you not say listen we are going to produce
00:22:56.460all of our oil we're going to take care of all of our needs we are going to lower the cost
00:23:00.860like just drop it into the ocean no pun intended so that all of all of our fuel needs to run our
00:23:09.580businesses to run your cars transportation to to do what you need to do on farms all of that's
00:23:15.840going to drop and as that drops we are going to be more competitive on every other single global
00:23:22.460market does that make sense or am i insane no you're not insane uh the problem is in the united
00:23:29.340States, about 80% of the oil, water, and all minerals that exist underground are owned by
00:23:37.620individuals. So in the United States, one person can own the land, but another person owns the
00:23:44.560minerals under the surface. And so you can own the water rights separately. You can own the rock,
00:23:52.460you can own the oil, you can own the gas. And there may be seven different geologic
00:23:58.640formations underground in any one spot that's owned by seven different people like this person
00:24:03.840how did that happen they they divide it up just like real estate just because it's below the
00:24:09.040ground do you have a year like what time period did they do that they started doing that
00:24:16.560they're like this this 17 acres are mine and you have a guy down the street goes yeah but
00:24:22.000the oil that's underneath it that's mine you can have whatever you want it huh yeah so some guy
00:24:28.080came along and, and some guy on some land and he said, Hey, I would like to purchase your land
00:24:34.140from 8,000 feet deep to 9,000 feet deep. And that's all I want to own. And they were like,
00:24:40.320sure, I'll sell you that. Like, what am I going to do with that? And they make up and that's how
00:24:45.940it started. And then it just went from there. And, and so now, you know, the United States
00:24:52.360owns all of the minerals, the oil, gas, rock, water, um, on federal lands, they own a hundred
00:24:58.500percent of that. Right. But about 80% of all the land in the United States, as far as the minerals
00:25:04.420is concerned, is owned by people like me or you like private individuals, mostly farmers that
00:25:12.140these mineral rights were handed down generation to generation. Because back in the old days,
00:25:18.960if if you got if your family got 40 acres and a mule if you've ever heard of that right um you
00:25:25.540got the 40 acres but you also got everything below you got the minerals and so as people
00:25:31.900acquired land throughout time they were acquiring the minerals too but no one was thinking about
00:25:37.920the minerals like it wasn't a thought like you know what i mean like they were just they just
00:25:42.060had the land well then someone comes along and it's like hey i'll offer you this much money for
00:25:47.640these minerals. And that's kind of how that started. And it just, it just went from there.
00:25:53.500But a lot of like the minerals say in West Texas, the biggest oil field at this point,
00:25:59.960probably in the world, a lot of that oil is owned by individual people that's been handed down from
00:26:06.800like five, six, seven generations. So this is like, this is like a generational wealth thing.
00:26:13.900these people own an asset they don't have to touch they don't have to manage it's like it
00:26:18.980doesn't exist but they own it it's so weird and then a company comes in and just gives them
00:26:23.980millions of dollars for something they've never seen touched or smelled like because it's 10,000
00:26:29.620feet below ground like it's kind of crazy but right that that's how it happens so
00:26:34.720so but even in okay so let's let's say that they're even just people driven okay is it because
00:26:46.960like i'm assuming there's no uh could be completely wrong are there any foreign nations
00:26:53.500foreign companies that are now purchasing said minerals 10 000 feet deep yes absolutely oh
00:27:02.460Oh, here's where it's going to get messy.
00:27:27.640it's a lot of corporations that are that are acquiring this stuff um and some of those
00:27:35.280corporations are foreign um you know there's there's a lot of uh the the japanese own a lot
00:27:43.800of minerals in like east texas um the chinese own a lot of stuff in west texas um but one thing
00:27:51.180we saw you know in the last 10 years is you know the the land that bill gates is is kind of scooping
00:27:57.420up he also is getting the water rights and he's all right he's he's more concerned about the water
00:28:06.320rights than he is the oil and gas um because because in the future water is going to become
00:28:13.180more scarce because of pollution and everything else um and there's there's been quite a few
00:28:19.360billionaires scoop up huge pieces of land and just the water rights like they don't want to deal with
00:28:25.600the oil they just want the water because the water is very valuable too um and it's super easy to
00:28:32.000extract it doesn't cost a lot of money so uh but yeah that that's a thing so so when when the price
00:28:40.240of the pump so when we're all up in arms about how much it costs to fill up a tank of gas right
00:28:46.000Because most people aren't really understanding the external ramifications, how your tomatoes
00:28:51.840go up because now the transport truck needs to pay more money to get from A to B or whatever.
00:28:57.360Let's just talk about filling up your tank of gas. There is no legitimate way, and please tell me if
00:29:06.880I'm wrong, that the government of the United States or the government of Canada can really
00:29:13.040control or determine that cost at the pump is there any what influence can they exert
00:29:26.080i would say uh definitely not directly but indirectly they can um one of the reasons
00:29:33.280there's basically two things that control gas prices and that is the price of oil you know
00:29:38.240know because that's basically the raw material and also we increase our our supply opec decreases it
00:29:47.600so it stays at the same price yeah right for the most part but you also have your capacity and
00:29:54.820ability to refine that oil into gasoline oil is traded on a global market gasoline is traded on
00:30:02.560like six different markets within the united states and it's very local and it's very regional so
00:30:07.520if in a certain district in the United States, there's not enough supply due to refining
00:30:14.280restrictions, because we lost a million barrels a day of refining capacity during COVID. We had
00:30:20.960a lot of refineries shut down. So even if oil prices would have dropped a lot, our gas prices
00:30:26.660would have remained high because the supply of gasoline in relation to demand was still low.
00:30:32.200even though oil could have came down, the gas still would have been high. So there's more than
00:30:38.140one variable there that determines those prices. So we've recovered about half of that refining
00:30:45.040capacity we lost. And that's why we've seen gas prices come down. But it's important to note that
00:30:52.400gas prices are very localized and regional and not global. And that's why in the state of
00:30:58.720Washington, gas is $4 and where I live, it's $2 and 30 cents. Some of that has to do with supply
00:31:06.920and the fact that geographically they're isolated from sort of the core infrastructure of the oil
00:31:13.860and gas industry in the United States. You know, you have the Rocky Mountains, they're way out
00:31:19.120there. It's hard to get product to them and plus their taxes are higher. So their gas is expensive.
00:31:24.620I live in Oklahoma and almost every pipeline that runs through the United States towards the Gulf
00:31:32.340Coast goes right through the middle of Oklahoma through a town called Cushing. It's called the
00:31:37.260pipeline capital of the world. There's like hundreds of pipelines that go into this town.
00:31:42.900So it's readily and easily available where I live. So there's always plenty of supplies and
00:31:48.440it's kind of a rural area. So it's cheap where I live. It's real expensive in California,
00:31:53.700Washington, Pennsylvania. So there's dozens of things that can affect gas prices. And a lot of
00:31:59.720people are surprised to learn that geography is a huge deal when it comes to gas prices.
00:32:05.140Because if you're kind of isolated from all of the core infrastructure, it's harder to get fuel
00:32:10.460to you. It's harder to maintain supplies that drives up the price of gas. And gasoline is
00:32:16.360traded on a market, just like a stock. Like there's not a person that just decides gas is
00:32:23.280going to be this much. It's sold in futures. You know, it's just like buying a share of Amazon
00:32:28.740stock, buying a gasoline future. So it's the traders that dictate the price, the wholesale
00:32:34.360price. And then from there, yeah. And then from there, the retailer buys it from a distributor
00:32:41.560and they determine how much they need to market up for them to have a profit. So a typical gas
00:32:47.620station is making about 10 to 20 cents per gallon on a gallon of gas. And all that other increase
00:32:56.300in price is down the supply chain, you know, starting with the traders that are trading the
00:33:02.380gasoline futures. You have RBOB and you have CARBOB. Those are two types of fuels.
00:33:11.280um one is a clean burning fuel one is you know the rbob is a reformulated blend
00:33:17.280these are basically the core products that that make gasoline um and that's all traded on an open
00:33:23.960market yeah okay so you said it's like i'm just going to try to put this into like um
00:33:30.780well into into just like okay so let let's say you have like you're saying there are six different
00:33:40.240companies as a whole that are trading gasoline. So these six different companies control
00:33:47.740the gasoline flow that goes with on within the United States. Okay. And then each company,
00:33:55.660not six companies. No, there's, so they're called pads, P-A-D-D. And a pad is a district,
00:34:03.820right? It's like an area, a geographic area. And there's six different pads in the United States.
00:34:10.240So they've broken up these districts within the United States and within each one of those, there's probably thousands of companies that are actually doing the trading, but I was, there's six districts where it's traded.
00:34:25.620okay yeah and that that makes sense that the district would have the biggest influence on
00:34:31.220the price because your geographical location is going to be one of the determining one of the
00:34:37.300biggest determining factors on gaining access to the gas yeah and the reason companies fighting
00:34:45.700about it yes and and the reason we set up these districts was during world war ii we had to ration
00:34:53.540fuel to people across the United States. And we had to make sure everyone had enough. And like
00:35:00.400this group of people wasn't getting more than they needed. And these people weren't getting
00:35:04.800enough. So they set up all these districts to monitor how much gasoline was within each of
00:35:11.020these districts. And this all occurred during World War II, because they were rationing fuel
00:35:15.860to everyone to make sure that we had enough. And that's how those districts became a thing.
00:35:20.740and they still exist to this day so sounds like the hunger games matt it's kind of like that
00:35:27.620because if district one has a little more gas than they need then they can sell some to district two
00:35:32.600um but they may go out there and throw javelins at each other to fight over it i don't know
00:35:37.640so district wise really then governmentally speaking this would be the specific states
00:35:48.820within that district would be talking about their particular pad. Why do you think, I know the
00:35:56.220answer to this, but again, I'm just going to wait for you to say it. Why do you think they didn't
00:36:00.240take away the districts when we were done with the need to ration?
00:36:08.400Because the way these districts are set up, they still exist to meet the needs of the people within
00:36:15.660those districts. And so the districts have vastly different geography, vastly different
00:36:21.980demographics, income, the amount of people that live there. So it's more like, we call it a
00:36:30.000district, but it's more like the way they look at it, strangely, it's almost like, okay, it's
00:36:35.860almost like six different countries. And all of these districts are very different in their
00:36:40.900consumption and their demand and their production. Um, and so those still exist. Um, but districts
00:36:49.300do trade oil and gas across each other. If this district has too much, they'll send some to that
00:36:55.140district. Um, but that's kind of why they still exist, uh, more for measured measuring and
00:37:02.620monitoring and, and still to make sure everyone's getting all of their, uh, needs met. But yeah,
00:37:09.100it's it's kind of weird uh the whole district thing i personally don't think we need it but
00:37:15.340yeah well it feels like a whole other level of of separated government if you know what i mean
00:37:23.260you have you have cities well you have counties you have cities you have states you have the nation
00:37:28.860and it feels like this is yet another way the united states is divided into subsets
00:37:35.580to fill their particular needs which you know when you guys divide into subsets bad things happen
00:37:41.820went to fill their particular needs um and then it seems very sort of you're making it sound nice
00:37:48.540because you're like well then if i have too much i can sell over there to district seven
00:37:53.980or whatever but in actuality what i'm going to be doing is taking advantage of the fact that they
00:37:58.780need what i have and i'm assuming i don't have to sell it at any particular price yeah so
00:38:05.580The number one issue I've got to expect, and some people acknowledge it, it's not about
00:38:29.740So the most significant part I would expect, if I were in government, and I really wanted to talk about lowering gas prices, the only part they really control on a big level, if they can't control the price per barrel, because that's being, you know, unless you're going to become completely isolationist about it.
00:38:52.080The only way I can control it and reduce it is to make sure that I can get it to places that don't necessarily have as much access.
00:39:04.060So would that be a, are we just talking pipelines, strictly pipelines?
00:39:10.840Pipelines, ports, rail, trucking, all of it.
00:39:15.460It's also important to note that I believe the district still exists because of corporations.
00:39:20.260um so the price the wholesale price of gasoline is different in every district because every
00:39:26.700district has its own supply and demand sort of scenario going on so if i was a buyer and gas in
00:39:35.320pad one was 30 cents cheaper than pad two and i found a buyer in pad two then i could buy gas for
00:39:43.64030 cents cheaper in pad one and sell it to the guy in pad two at a 30 cent profit just by buying
00:39:50.880a contract and then selling a contract to someone else. So I think the corporations have a lot to do
00:39:57.500with those districts still existing because it's more about profit and being able to trade and make
00:40:03.620profit. That's the biggest thing those districts do when it comes to a corporate level. There is
00:40:08.580a ton of trading that goes on around all those districts. And cheaper gas from the districts
00:40:15.200that have lower prices is constantly being bought and sold to districts that have higher gas prices
00:40:21.000for a markup. And that's all stuff that's done in offices and trading rooms by people that wear
00:40:28.180suits. That's just how that works. So that's one of the, I believe that's the main reason
00:40:35.680the district still exists. Outside of that, they're really not needed. I mean, it's kind of
00:40:41.020neat to see how it all works, but how necessary is it? It's not. It's not really necessary.
00:40:48.760Well, it sounds like it's necessary for the formation and the continuation
00:40:55.480and for the consolidation of monopolies.
00:40:58.940exactly good point yeah so what you're saying in essence is the gas prices or the the energy
00:41:09.500you know all of the energy needs and pricing and all of that especially during covid as it all
00:41:16.680went up as it all is really primarily to do with just like it had to do with everything else
00:41:23.560about the price gouging that was enabled or that was legal by corporate entities.
00:41:34.360So the only way to rectify this, or maybe the single biggest way to rectify this,
00:41:42.620is addressing corporate control having nothing to do with supply, having nothing to do with
00:41:50.560refineries, having nothing to do with even like transportation of oil. Would you, because I
00:41:57.100remember seeing a stat and it's hard to know how true these are, but I remember seeing a statistic
00:42:01.700about the price of goods as it went up during inflation. And out of the hundred, like, let's
00:42:07.420say inflation went up by a hundred percent, 40% was just the company going amazing. I'm going to
00:42:15.760jack up my cost 40% because nobody's going to know and I'm going to blame inflation.
00:42:21.120I'm going to blame the government printing money. I'm going to blame
00:42:25.040foreign wars. I'm going to blame whatever I can blame. Would you argue that?0.96
00:42:33.840Do you think that's the primary driver? As it relates to just COVID and what happened after
00:42:40.960that that inflation uh the inflationary pressure that was put on oil and gas that was created by
00:42:47.860the united states government the russian government and the saudi government that
00:42:53.660they created that with the opec 2020 deal right um right they cut global production by 10 percent
00:43:01.760for two years which is insane for a pandemic that was only we were being told was going to
00:43:08.400end in two weeks. And so during the first two years of the Biden administration, OPEC was
00:43:15.680producing four, five, six million barrels a day less than they were under the Trump administration
00:43:20.880because of this deal. And that is what drove up oil and gas prices. Now, where corporations and
00:43:29.200companies can get into inflating, artificially inflating gas prices, that happens in two ways,
00:43:36.460either on the trader level, you know, the people buying and selling the contracts,
00:43:42.460not the oil companies themselves, but the traders.
00:43:45.980A couple of them just recently got busted in California
00:43:48.960for doing some unsavory things with trading futures options.
00:43:54.140But really the only thing oil companies can do to drive up price is just produce less.
00:44:01.560It's just refuse to produce enough product.
00:44:05.380And so where we're at today, oil companies, we have gotten into three price wars with OPEC over the last 10 years.
00:44:16.240And what oil companies in the United States, the problem is, is we have corporations that compete with nations.
00:47:12.180Well, it's kind of a mess because it and this goes back to everything else, you know, that that we talk about in the grand scheme of things, because people love to talk about what their nation can do, what their country can do, what their government's going to do.
00:47:29.860and they do it with blinders on and not purposeful blinders. This is a lot of information
00:47:36.420for somebody to sit down and try to wrap their heads around. And this is just one of the bajillion
00:47:41.660industries you'd have to do it to really get an understanding of what economic trade and
00:47:47.260globalization and all of those shared resources actually look like. So I get that. But when
00:47:56.280you're sitting here saying, well, I'm going to elect a certain government to deal with it,
00:48:00.420whatever the government happens to be, it doesn't seem as though there's a lot of power in the
00:48:08.140government unless they're only going to do one of two things. Unless you're going to go to war
00:48:16.360and you're going to say, Saudi Arabia, this is now ours. Solution number one. Solution number two,0.94
00:48:24.900you nationalize in heaven that's again my apologize you know saying that to an american
00:48:31.220you nationalize american oil and you no longer even bother with the prices and you you take it
00:48:40.340right off the the i can't even imagine i can't even comprehend how much money gets lost there
00:48:45.480but you take it right out of the pot right you say listen you guys do you i don't care what
00:48:50.760you're doing anymore. I don't care the price of OPEC oil, because we're going to produce our own,
00:48:55.540refine our own, sell our own to each other. And that's all that's going to happen.
00:49:01.000And you guys go off and do whatever you're going to do. Is there a tertiary solution other than
00:49:08.540doing what we've always been doing, which is trying to figure out a balance, trying to figure
00:49:13.500out having more conversations? The word is collusion, but what it really is, is compromise
00:49:19.160and conversation in order to have a balance in that sphere, what would you, if you had a wand
00:49:27.760or you had a, you know, what would you do right now? I'm going to give you all the power.
00:49:36.360The first thing I would do right now is I would create, because, so here's, and I'm not opposed
00:50:12.660Yes. There's a profit there no matter the market. It's the government taking on the entire risk.
00:50:20.660So Chevron can go to Saudi Arabia and they can drill and produce wells and they're guaranteed
00:50:26.100a profit no matter what because they're doing a service for someone else. The problem with
00:50:31.200nationalizing in the United States is the trillions of dollars it would cost. That's, well,
00:50:36.880other than the thing you said about Americans, you know, just being completely opposed to that
00:50:42.080in general. The biggest roadblock is, but one thing that I've proposed for a long time is,
00:50:49.560you know, they have, you know, they have their cartel. OPEC has their cartel. It's now up to
00:50:57.22017 countries plus some additional and they all work together. And I think we need our own
00:51:03.880organization on this side of the world. I think we need our own and I think we can trade and we
00:51:10.760can set up our own trading district on our side we can have our own cartel where the u.s does
00:51:16.400business with canada and mexico and south america and australia and we set up our own sort of opec
00:51:22.920and and we trade all within ourselves and that sort of completely eliminates all of that
00:51:28.680assuming none of that gets crossed and sent to other parts of the world um another another idea
00:51:36.460So I floated an idea to my senator a couple of years ago when gas prices were really high, because one of the problems we have in the United States is how much gasoline or refined fuels that we export.
00:52:01.400So I proposed a trigger law to my senator, and he actually loved the idea.
00:52:07.100It was a trigger law that if gas price reaches a certain level, then there's a trigger that automatically comes in that reduces the exports for a period of time until gas prices are back in check.
00:52:19.760And, you know, that was getting a lot of traction and a lot of attention when gas was $5.
00:52:25.660Now that gas is $3, they've kind of completely forgotten about it.
00:52:29.140and that's because more power in that scenario well that's because in the united states losing
00:52:35.860money then right well in the united states we don't address problems until they're on top of
00:52:41.700us like we don't look forward and try to like stave them off we wait for the problem to come
00:52:48.460and then we sit around and we're like oh my gosh what do we do well we could have fixed this two
00:52:52.920years ago by being ready for this to happen because five dollar gas is going to happen again
00:52:58.860in the United States, $6, $7 gas, someday it's going to happen. And we're going to be having
00:53:03.580this entire conversation again. So why not pass the legislation now? That way we don't have to
00:53:09.680worry about it then. But we only solve problems when they're as bad as they can get and they're
00:53:15.540right on top of us. That's how we operate. That's how we've always operated. I don't know why. We're
00:53:20.500not a very forward-thinking people. But I think that trigger law though is going to, and this is
00:53:26.660a fundamental issue in the United States, I think. And it's this fundamental issue that business
00:53:32.200interests come first. That protection of a business entity and profit-making ability
00:53:39.320is always going to take priority because everything else is communism, Matt.
00:53:44.420Everything else, right? And so when you don't put a trigger law in, it's all of a sudden,
00:53:49.840whoa, whoa, whoa, you're not a capitalist now? Well, no, I'm not a capitalist to the detriment
00:53:55.620of our actual citizens that doesn't make sense but again they throw out the four-letter word
00:54:04.360which obviously isn't four but they throw this word out as though that's what it means when what
00:54:10.640you're actually talking about is very reasonable limitations of profiteering in certain times in
00:54:18.900certain spaces over essential goods you're not talking about people going out and buying new tvs
00:54:24.920Those can be whatever the hell they want to be because nobody needs it. You're talking about an energy source that is absolutely necessary to the survival and maintenance of our lives. So in that capacity, it makes sense that there would be trigger laws. It makes sense there would be limitations to profiteering. All of that makes sense. But you're going to stand against capitalism.