Want to wish you guys a safe and Happy 4th of July. We still live in the greatest country in the world, where we can debate each other.
Most terrifying moment on a tractor in years
- Thread starter fishpick
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jyoutz
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Equipment
MX6000 HST open station, FEL, 6’ cutter, forks, 8’ rear blade, 7’ cultivator
Agree. And same to you. I’m going to put a pork butt in the smoker.
MMMMMM.....sounds good.
I'll probably be hunting or trapping some 'pork butts' this weekend.
Covered up with the damn things!
jyoutz
Well-known member
Equipment
MX6000 HST open station, FEL, 6’ cutter, forks, 8’ rear blade, 7’ cultivator
Those things are a destructive nuisance. I’m glad we don’t have wild hogs where I live. They had a population down in the southeast part of the state, but game and fish shot them before the population grew too much. What do you do with all of them that you trapped?
Any who want them are called and they come and get them, but most folks have a full freezer, so by necessity they are dispatched and 'recycled'. Buzzards and Coyotes pick them clean in about 24 hrs.
They are a scourge in my State (Texas). Destructive animals like you wouldn't believe.
I have 3 dedicated hog stands on my property where they are baited in and shot. I trap them, shoot them, snare them and occasionally run them with dogs. Been doing it for about 30 yrs. now. They just keep making more.
Ongoing thread on another site below: ( Waring: don't go there if you are sensitive to a few graphic photos)
Not again.......! Feral Hog Control in East Texas
It never ends! We just got rid of one sounder, now (a month later)….there is a new group. This is just one area they have rooted up in the pasture (there are others): I have managed to get this group baited into a “lane” between our property and the neighbor. For...
www.thehighroad.org
jyoutz
Well-known member
Equipment
MX6000 HST open station, FEL, 6’ cutter, forks, 8’ rear blade, 7’ cultivator
I have seen them in your state in the hill country. They can sure tear things up. We buy domestic pigs from the 4h kids every year, but I think I’d be leery of eating wild hogs because of parasites. Or do you just roast them so they pull and kill the parasites?
Internal meat temp to at least 160°F kills all parasites....but yes some do exist. Not an appetizing thought.
Just to make one correction to your overall well thought out and insightful response, the keystone pipe line is still in operation today. The administration shutdown the keystone XL pipeline expansion, which is already partially completed.
jyoutz
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MX6000 HST open station, FEL, 6’ cutter, forks, 8’ rear blade, 7’ cultivator
A couple of things to consider. Federal lands have never been where most oil is located: most comes from state and private lands. But there are currently over 10 million acres of federal lands under lease for oil exploration and production. A short term freeze on leases does nothing to production and the issuing of leases was stopped to re-assess prices (they haven’t changed since the 1930s and federal leases are way cheaper than state and private leases). The Canadian oil pipeline has zero effects on US fuel. That low grade tar sand oil is sent to gulf ports for export. No US refineries can use that oil. We have no shortage of oil being produced; we have a shortage of refinery capacity. Yet congress authorized exports of oil and fuel, and US companies are exporting a lot.
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Correct. I didn't mean to infer that the entire pipeline was shut down, just the expansion. Quite possible the average person is not aware of that. Good clarification.
Not accurate. Tar sand oil can be (and is) refined by several U.S. refineries....it is just expensive to do so and requires special equipment. To that end... Canada has refineries that 'upgrade' the crude (the refineries are actually called upgraders) where they strip a lot of the carbon from the crude.
That product is known as Syncrude or SCO and can be sold (and piped) to many refineries who then further process it into transport fuels. Keystone Expansion could have transported more of this.
But even if not upgraded...we have refineries (in the Midwest and Gulf Coast) that can handle Bitumen blends which is made by diluting tar sand crude with light hydrocarbons from Natural Gas Liquids (I alluded to this in a previous post). That way...the blend can be piped easily to refineries that then strip the NGL's out and process the crude.
Now it is true that the preferred crude (and trend) is for light/sweet crude. But it only makes sense to use as many 'sources' of crude available (as is economically possible) in times like these.
jyoutz
Well-known member
Equipment
MX6000 HST open station, FEL, 6’ cutter, forks, 8’ rear blade, 7’ cultivator
Would refininer
Would refineries want that low grade and more expensive to process oil, when they have more better quality Permian basin oil than they can process?
Depends on the refinery of course. The subject we've been discussing has been confined largely to Transportation Fuels. In which case the most expedient Crude Oil with the highest yield (and cost) are the lighter Sweet Crudes.
But remember....Crude Oil is used for so many other things. Various chemicals and synthetic plastics just to name a couple.
Heavy Crude and even Tar Sand Crude (most often a mix) can have a markedly lower 'input cost' (cost per barrel) and though requiring more refining can still be very profitable.
Some smaller refineries (typically under 50K bpd) do nothing but crack crude to make things other than transport fuels. Naptha is the main feedstock for making a wide variety of plastics, polyethylene and polypropylene.
I'd wager where you are sitting right now, you can't look around and not see something made of plastic. So there is a heavy demand for more than just Gas, Diesel, Jet Fuel. We use different types of Crude Oils for different reasons and Oil Companies will simply use whatever costs the least at any given time.
I've been tracking crude oil and gas prices for over 30 years. These are facts that can easily be substantiated at a link I'll give you.
In late 2018 they had almost 1100 total rigs pumping crude oil and natural gas flooding the market. Then Covid came along and the rig count dropped to as low as 244, that's when crude prices fell into negative territory. As of June 24th 2022 it's still only back up to 753 total rigs, a small change from an earlier report, in the US and Canada. This is an excellent way for them to control the price. Want to control prices just keep the valves shut. Watch the next quarterly profit report when it comes. OPEC also has not got back to pre-Covid levels. These are rigs that are capable of pumping oil and gas, these numbers have nothing to do with drilling or drilling leases.
Go here and click on the 5Y (5 year) graph.
Current Active Oil and NG Rig Count
In late 2018 they had almost 1100 total rigs pumping crude oil and natural gas flooding the market. Then Covid came along and the rig count dropped to as low as 244, that's when crude prices fell into negative territory. As of June 24th 2022 it's still only back up to 753 total rigs, a small change from an earlier report, in the US and Canada. This is an excellent way for them to control the price. Want to control prices just keep the valves shut. Watch the next quarterly profit report when it comes. OPEC also has not got back to pre-Covid levels. These are rigs that are capable of pumping oil and gas, these numbers have nothing to do with drilling or drilling leases.
Go here and click on the 5Y (5 year) graph.
Current Active Oil and NG Rig Count
jyoutz
Well-known member
Equipment
MX6000 HST open station, FEL, 6’ cutter, forks, 8’ rear blade, 7’ cultivator
Thanks. Very informative. I would imagine those refineries that make products other than fuel are on the gulf coast? In my state, all refineries produce fuel.
Bmyers
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Lifetime Member
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Grand L3560 with LA805 loader, EA 55" Wicked Grapple, SBX72 BB, LP 1272 mower
Nope, the 13th largest refinery is right in the middle of the nation in Wood River/Roxana Illinois. One of several pipelines that feed it come from Canada and they use the Canada sand oil.
Depending on the need the increase/decrease product production. All parts of the oil is used. Plus, some of the 'waste' products are sold also (guess that doesn't make them waste). They have two coker units, two distiling units, two delayed cracking units, naptha unit, low sulfar unit, just to list a few.
At one point, they had a unit that made chemicals for Kodak film production, but that unit has since been torn down and replaced with another as times have changed.
The refinery produces a large amount of propane and butane, but you only see a couple of storage tanks for it since all of it is stored underground.
I know all this useless info because that is where I started my career in Occupational Safety and was hired when the refinery was doing the big $10 billion build out to accept the crude from Canada. Part of the build out included upgrading the piping so it could handle the more corrosive sand oil running through the pipes. The oil would eat through (technically wear through) the old pipes.
The refinery is actually joint ownership between P66 and Cenovus, which Cenovus is Canadian owned.
Correct.
And some of the waste products (solid forms) are Coke which can be burned along with Coal to produce power BUT it is high in carbon and is a rightful target for environmentalists, regulation and restriction.
Ahh, if it were only a free market.
Here we have a cartel of oil producers that freely fix the price of their product. Then we have a very small number of refiners who, conveniently, all sell their finished product for almost the exact same price.
So much for a free market
'Cartels'......really? Domestic Cartels.
Care to provide a list (by name) of these supposed 'cartels' (Oil Producers and Refineries).
Inquiring minds want to know.
Good grief.........!