Saving areas from oil exploration - realistic?

[adios]

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But it would be economically feasible to pump out only a fraction of that reserve. A 1998 study estimated that about 1.9 billion barrels could be recovered at a price of $24 per barrel.

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I note that the price to recover oil in Saudi Arabia and Iraq is between $2 and $3 a barrel if memory serves. With this in mind allow me to fix the following excerpt from your post:

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Fact: there is not enough oil reserves in the entire United States for us to ever 'drill' our way out of our foreign dependence on oil.
One way where we could conceivably reduce our foreign dependence on oil is finding alternative energy sources.

Improving the effeciency and cost of current technologies that utilize oil will tend to reduce the demand for oil due to less consumption. Reducing the demand for oil will make the USA <u>more dependent</u> on foreign oil sources like Saudi Arabia and Iraq since their production costs are vastly lower than domestic production costs. The marginally profitable producers cease production when the price of a barrel of oil decreases enough. The lowest cost producers win out in the long run

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FYP