Farewell. The Flying Pig Has Left The Building.

Steve Hynd, August 16, 2012

After four years on the Typepad site, eight years total blogging, Newshoggers is closing it's doors today. We've been coasting the last year or so, with many of us moving on to bigger projects (Hey, Eric!) or simply running out of blogging enthusiasm, and it's time to give the old flying pig a rest.

We've done okay over those eight years, although never being quite PC enough to gain wider acceptance from the partisan "party right or wrong" crowds. We like to think we moved political conversations a little, on the ever-present wish to rush to war with Iran, on the need for a real Left that isn't licking corporatist Dem boots every cycle, on America's foreign misadventures in Afghanistan and Iraq. We like to think we made a small difference while writing under that flying pig banner. We did pretty good for a bunch with no ties to big-party apparatuses or think tanks.

Those eight years of blogging will still exist. Because we're ending this typepad account, we've been archiving the typepad blog here. And the original blogger archive is still here. There will still be new content from the old 'hoggers crew too. Ron writes for The Moderate Voice, I post at The Agonist and Eric Martin's lucid foreign policy thoughts can be read at Democracy Arsenal.

I'd like to thank all our regular commenters, readers and the other bloggers who regularly linked to our posts over the years to agree or disagree. You all made writing for 'hoggers an amazingly fun and stimulating experience.

Thank you very much.

Note: This is an archive copy of Newshoggers. Most of the pictures are gone but the words are all here. There may be some occasional new content, John may do some posts and Ron will cross post some of his contributions to The Moderate Voice so check back.


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Monday, August 25, 2008

Rigs lacking

By Fester:



I am not an oil field engineer, but one thing I do know about the oil industry is that a new oil well needs to be drilled before oil can be extracted.  At sea, that means an off-shore drilling platform is needed.  And here is a problem.  The supply of off-shore platforms that can drill is booked solid for the next four and a half years. RigZone is showing a very high utilization rate of the current global supply of a neccessary component of any off-shore drilling effort.



So when the Drill Now, Drill Here folks are projecting quasi-magical claims of price decreases due to the increased availability of American oil that is brought about by their policy change, I just have to laugh.  Drilling on the Atlantic seaboard for the exploration wells will only occur if a rig is moved off of a current production well on known reserves.  That means in the short run, supply will decrease if a rig is moved to support their policy.  A decrease in supply, all else being equal, will lead to an increase in price.  Otherwise, their policy change which is allegedly supposed to do something about pain at the pump this summer, won't see any significant impact for most of a decade. 



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1 comment:

  1. andersonAugust 25, 2008 at 3:41 AM

    Fester,
    Ahh, but you are missing their subtle argument. It is not the actual oil that will reduce prices, but the "psychological" impact that wanting to drill for oil will have on world markets. You don't need actual drilling rigs for that, you see.

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