A Free-Market Energy Blog

Does the Oil Industry Have a Future? (Part I)

By Julián Salazar Velásquez -- January 24, 2023

Ed. note: Julián Salazar Velásquez is a geologist and petroleum engineer with a nearly 50-year career in the Mexican and Venezuelan oil industries. A leading educator and proponent of free market energy, he is author of numerous articles and Gerencia Integrada de Campos de Hidrocarburos (2020), a primer on the oil industry value chain. His four-part world view starts today and continues this week in Part II, Part III, and Part IV.

The current depiction of the oil and gas industry is not only incorrect but worrying. In the more than two years that I have been educating at conferences, in courses, in articles, and in my book—I have seen how unsound dogma threatens progress and prosperity in our countries.

Background

In December 2021 in Petroleum Magazine, I published “Energy Transition or Transgression?…

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Mineral Privatization for the Masses: Remembering Guillermo Yeatts (1937–2018)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- January 23, 2023

“The major international energy issue should not be climate change. It should be, per Guillermo M. Yeatts, country-by-country privatization of subsurface mineral rights to benefit the mass of surface owners and would-be entrepreneurs.”

He was a true friend of private property, free markets, the rule of law, and goodwill for all. He was a successful entrepreneur in the U.S. and Latin America. He was a thinker and doer, building up an intellectual case for public policy reform and acting on it. And for a lot of us, he was a shining star. In my case, he introduced my work to Latin America.

Guillermo M. Yeatts (1937–2018) died just short of his 81st birthday. Born in Buenos Aires, he studied in America and successively rose in business in the US and in Argentina (see Appendix A).…

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Ark2030: No Pleasure Cruise Ships Please (elitism in action)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- January 19, 2023

“Cruise ship alarmists: check your premises and update your facts. Take a week long cruise. Bring some books to beat ‘climate anxiety.’ Epstein, Koonin, Bryce, Lomborg, Smil, Morano …. all affordable and best sellers.”

I am leaving the country on a cruise ship next week. It’s a rather amazing, affordable get-away. A week at sea with multiple international destinations is for the masses–the middle class and some lower-to-middle upper class. (Cunard from New York City to Liverpool will have to wait for some of us.)

There will be around 5,400 passengers and 2,200 crew on board (Allure of the Seas). The reformulated diesel that powers the ship (electricity too) represents the work of hundreds of thousands of “energy slaves.” All to have the experience that Kings and Queens of yore could only dream about.…

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Intellectual Climate Debate: The Alarmists are Alarmed

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- January 18, 2023
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Duke Energy’s Rolling Blackouts: Remember Jim Rogers’ CO2 Politics

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- January 17, 2023
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Energy and Environmental Review: January 16, 2023

By -- January 16, 2023
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Dangerous ‘Deep Decarbonization’ (Krebs PowerPoint to Cooler Heads Coalition)

By -- January 13, 2023
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Chris Wright (Liberty Energy): Setting the Tone for 2023

By Robert Bradley Jr. --
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“Rare Earths,” Electrification Mandates, and Energy Security (Part II)

By -- January 12, 2023
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Michael Mann Quotations: Doubling Down, but Not Giving Up

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- January 11, 2023
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