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Many do not believe that there is a limit to the amount of oil that can be taken from the planet but there is. The bad news is that limit may have already been past so everything we do will now cost much more......if it is available at all.
"World oil reserves are far lower than officially reported, the situation far more serious than publicly admitted, and we're already past peak oil. That's the word from two anonymous IEA whistleblowers, The Guardian reports. To add insult to industry, the figures were deliberately massaged, at least in part, to appease the United States:
Apparently the IEA was concerned that reporting the true reserve numbers -- and keep in mind that determining oil reserves is as much art as science -- it would trigger a buying panic.
The US enters the picture encouraging the IEA to underplay the rate at which oil fields are being depleted -- something which the IEA has admitted in recent months is occurring more quickly than previously acknowledged -- while at the same time overplaying the possibility of new large discoveries."
We have known about peak oil for decades. We know that the Saudis overstate their reserves. We know that domestic oil production peaked in the 70's. All this we know, but the fuzzy logic of the oil business pales in comparison to the totally irresponsible schemes of the financial speculators. The solution to the oil problem is in single celled plants called algae. Instead of bailing out failed banks money could have been invested in this technology. A steady stream of oil would flow, forever. Instead we send our future wealth to the top leeches and face a future of energy shortages. What fools we are.
We have known about peak oil for decades. We know that the Saudis overstate their reserves. We know that domestic oil production peaked in the 70's. All this we know, but the fuzzy logic of the oil business pales in comparison to the totally irresponsible schemes of the financial speculators. The solution to the oil problem is in single celled plants called algae. Instead of bailing out failed banks money could have been invested in this technology. A steady stream of oil would flow, forever. Instead we send our future wealth to the top leeches and face a future of energy shortages. What fools we are.
Yeah, what one needs to do is find out what the top leeches are spending their money on and sell that to them.
Overpriced housing...
Overpriced haute cuisine...
Overpriced prostitutes...
Overpriced clothing...
Overpriced wealth protection schemes...
Overpriced golf lessons...
Overpriced club memberships...
Overpriced plastic surgery...
Overpriced vacations...
Overpriced gas-guzzling cars...(I knew I could get this back to the Peak Oil topic)...
Yes, we all know the world economies are driven by oil prices and it's availability. That is preciecly my point. For the larger part no one is doing anything to uncouple the worlds economies from the need for oil or the car driven societies it produced!!
Well, I'm a Yank, but even I know not to take The Guardian at face value...!
As the price goes up and the technology improves, finding more oil is not exactly like me rummaging for another 10-spot in my wallet. Not that cut and dried.
--- Price is determined by supply and demand. Tree huggers's focus on reducing demand and ignore supply. They are part right.
--- drill baby drill ain't bad - it increases supply but these people forget controlling the demand side (car mileage etc)
--- peak oil is bunk. We have enough oil for 100+ yrs because
(i) over the last 150 yrs, oil is supposed to have run out in "another" 20-30 yrs. But, it has not.
(ii) as oil price increases, recoverable reserves increase (more technologies can be used etc)
(iii) almost 70% of earth's surface is water. Most of it currently does not produce oil
(iv) most older fields still have 20-70% unrecovered oil in them. Oil companies are making extraction from these brown fields easier
(v) oil is still cheaper than many other sources
-- peak production (not peak oil reserves) may be around mainly because of lack of develpment of infrastructure, which takes time and is expensive. It is not because we are about to run out of oil
Conspiracy theories are nice, but consider the source. Some people think Saudi actually under-reports reserves so that it is not a juicy target to outside powers. There is really no need to panic. However, no one can guarantee lack of short term fluctuations. A bigger problem is the oil prices going up because of the weakening dollar and this is not likely to stop anytime soon.
Last edited by calmdude; 11-16-2009 at 07:29 PM..
Reason: twypoes
--- Price is determined by supply and demand. Tree huggers's focus on reducing demand and ignore supply. They are part right.
--- drill baby drill ain't bad - it increases supply but these people forget controlling the demand side (car mileage etc)
--- peak oil is bunk. We have enough oil for 100+ yrs because
(i) over the last 150 yrs, oil is supposed to have run out in "another" 20-30 yrs. But, it has not.
(ii) as oil price increases, recoverable reserves increase (more technologies can be used etc)
(iii) almost 70% of earth's surface is water. Most of it currently does not produce oil
(iv) most older fields still have 20-70% unrecovered oil in them. Oil companies are making extraction from these brown fields easier
(v) oil is still cheaper than many other sources
-- peak production (not peak oil reserves) may be around mainly because of lack of develpment of infrastructure, which takes time and is expensive. It is not because we are about to run out of oil
Conspiracy theories are nice, but consider the source. Some people think Saudi actually under-reports reserves so that it is not a juicy target to outside powers. There is really no need to panic. However, no one can guarantee lack of short term fluctuations. A bigger problem is the oil prices going up because of the weakening dollar and this is not likely to stop anytime soon.
I agree that peak oil (supply) is complete nonsense. There will come a day, probably in my lifetime (I'm 31) when oil will no longer be used for most transportation, but there will be plenty of it left in the ground for industrial purposes. Easy oil is, for the most part, over and done with, so once the cost of extracting what's left grows higher than the cost of alternatives, then the alternatives will take over. It's simple market economics.
I agree that peak oil (supply) is complete nonsense. There will come a day, probably in my lifetime (I'm 31) when oil will no longer be used for most transportation, but there will be plenty of it left in the ground for industrial purposes. Easy oil is, for the most part, over and done with, so once the cost of extracting what's left grows higher than the cost of alternatives, then the alternatives will take over. It's simple market economics.
Matthew Simmons knows his subject, and he's coming at this from the standpoint of big business; he was an investment banker who specialized in oil. If even he is saying that Saudi Arabia's oil reserves will soon be declining if they're not already, we're in trouble.
I have zero faith in our government to handle this looming crisis. However, it is a very good way to sell survivalist books and videos! Here's a good one:
Give me a break! Everyone who buys these books thinks that they're magically going to be the ones who manage to survive. I don't buy it, and I'm not going to make someone else rich by buying books like these.
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Everyone who buys these books thinks that they're magically going to be the ones who manage to survive. I don't buy it, and I'm not going to make someone else rich by buying books like these.
