Black Gold

Oil City. This is where we have called home for more than a year. Obviously based on the name oil has been an important part of the heritage of this area and still is. We have an oil well in our back yard and one near our front yard. Those two alone produce about 1-2 barrels per day. Oil City, Louisiana is the first place in the world where an over-the-water oil well was used. It was out on Caddo Lake back in 1911. This oil well produced over 400 barrels per day at one time. By the way Caddo Lake is the largest natural freshwater lake in the south and is home to the largest collection of Cypress trees in the world. Legend says the lake was formed by the New Madrid earthquake in 1811. Back in the early 1900's lots of investors and wildcatters came to this area. Some of its most famous or infamous citizens were Howard Hughes, Sr. and Jr. It was while he was in Oil City that he discovered and manufactured the Hughes Drill Bit that could cut through hard stone.

Oil is a vital part of our state economy and national economy. Did you know that the world consumes 86 million barrels of oil per day? Back in 1973 our government made a deal with Saudi Arabia, the number one supplier of oil, to sell its oil in US dollars. This helped stabilize the dollar. However in 2008 Iran, the number two supplier of oil, opened its own trading exchange in which oil is sold in euros. This has helped devalue the dollar. America is the number 11 supplier of oil and yet it is the number one consumer of oil. Do you see a dangerous problem? Yet we have not built any oil refinieries in our country in 30 years. The United States currently uses 21 million barrels a day. Because of the importance of oil on our national economy something very important happened in 1980. Then President Jimmy Carter announced the Carter Doctrine. He expressed that any outside force that attempted to gain control of the Persian Gulf region would be seen as an assault on America's vital interest.

Most of us pay little attention to oil. Until it traded at over $100 per barrel and the price at the pump neared $4 per gallon, we gave little thought to it. In 2005 the world used more oil than was produced in the previous year. The rate of oil discovery has been falling ever since the 1960's, according to Paul Roberts book "The End of Oil". I am reading a book called "What In the World is Going On". It has a lot to say about the part oil will play in the end times. I encourage you to read the book. Oil, it is black gold and it will play a part in the end times.