Posted on 09/14/2006 11:44:07 AM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Leading players in the petroleum industry, including Saudi Arabia and Exxon Mobil Corp., are aggressively arguing that plenty of crude oil remains for world consumption, in an effort to counter critics who contend crude output is about to plateau.
That argument, known as peak-oil theory, has provided intellectual backing for the boom in crude prices and sowed doubts among some policy makers about crude's long-term reliability as an energy source. Such doubts, coupled with concern over sky-high prices, have added impetus to the search for oil substitutes -- including in Washington, where President Bush this year declared the U.S. "addicted to oil" and sparked a boom in interest in ethanol.
Some in the industry are keen to fight the threat posed by such fears.
Yesterday, Abdallah S. Jum'ah, chief executive of Saudi Arabian state-owned Saudi Aramco, the world's largest oil company by production, argued during a speech in Vienna that the world has more than a century's worth of crude left at current production rates. His talk followed similar remarks by a senior Exxon executive this week. Spokesmen for Exxon and Aramco said they aren't coordinating their remarks.
The belief that the Earth is running dry of oil is just one factor supporting crude prices. Oil supplies -- constrained by underinvestment when crude prices were lower -- have increased more slowly than demand, leading to a thin margin of spare pumping capacity and higher prices.
Demand has shown signs of slowing and prices have fallen from a nominal all-time high of more than $78 a barrel in July, though, adjusted for inflation, oil reached as high as $99.21 in April 1980. In New York yesterday, crude-oil futures rose 21 cents to settle at $63.97.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
PING
If they keep the supply of oil high enough to avoid $80 a barrel...then the peak oil theories won't get much traction.
ping
That's exactly the "logic" that propels this theory.
I thought "peak-oil" was an ADM created conspiracy...
We all know we need to find alternative fuels.
We also know we wont do that as long as Fossil Fuel is cheap enough to keep us moving.
Every now and then someone finds a new exciting way that will put oil ouf of business. so far none of them have turned out to be more than expensive ideas.
We all know we need to find alternative fuels.
Why?
Usually the peak oil threads are introduced on an oil price increase, If they are introduced on an oil price decrease they make no sense at all. For oil price decreases we should come up with another killer bird flu megavolcano asteroid kind of thread.
necessity has always being the mother of invention, and we do it much better than any other nation on earth, OPEC must be shaking in their sandals with that knowledge, and that is the reason for what is taking place now.
That and the vast petroleun field in our hemisphere.
http://www.dieoff.org
Start with a base of Amory Lovins. Throw in 2 cups of Margaret Sanger. Add dashes of Lenin, Hitler, Mao, and Pol Pot. Mix in 1 Tbsp of Lyndon Larouche. Stir.
How about just a general "We Are Doomed" kinda thread? Maybe one of Jerome Corsi's "NAFTA Superhighway" articles?
Mostly because we need energy independence. We dont want to go on being subject to the whims of OPEC and crazies like Venezuelan President and Ahmadinejhad. We dont need to depend on fuel from as far away as the Middle east.
Also one day gasoline reserves may indeed be low and the lower they get the more expensive fuel will be.
OK, we agree on our energy independence. The USA has more known oil reserves then the middle east. We don't "need" to import oil from anywhere - we "have" to import because our own government will not us drill for it.
BTW, we do export oil as well this is mainly due to the balance of trade issues and numbers that get confusing and boring if discussed for longer then say a nano second.
Corsi has hold of eternal truth, regardless of whether gold is up or down 10 any given time. Always good.
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