Peak Oil: An Idea Whose Time Is Up

IBD ^ | May 28, 2008

[spanalot]

People are going to have to pay to get rid of the stuff someday.

[mountainlion]

US oil production has dropped 40% and consumption has doubled.
Congress decided to put a moratorium on new drilling on public land and developing oil shale. Congress has gotten in bed with Eco Freaks to get money and make Bush look bad at the same time and are about to wreck the country.

[Gondring]

On the other hand, we’ll be the last ones with the stuff.

[Gondring]

On a daily basis, roughly 85 million barrels of oil are consumed across the world, almost exactly matching the amount produced each day.

Wow! What a coincidence!

</sarc>

[Nervous Tick]

I got yer "peak oil" RIGHT HERE!!!

[kempo]

You would have to throw a turd in the punch bowl by stating the facts.

[SoldierDad]

Some analysts believe that investors who have swallowed the peak oil theory are pricing oil higher because they fear the world is running out of crude and permanent shortages are nigh.

The fact that these investors are making huge profits from their manipulation of that alledged fear of shortage somehow always gets ignored.

[Thebaddog]

How much oil in the ground is a closely guarded secret. Oil companies only tell part of the story, IMHO.

[txhurl]

We should start an oil-crash 'proposition' on InTrade.

Burn, baby, burn.

[annelizly]

“Blame part of $135-a-barrel oil on the increased demand in China and India, where the populations and economies are growing rapidly.”

How is chinas population growing rapidly when they’ve only been allowed to have one child per couple??? include the fact that everyone chose to have male babies shouldn’t their population be shrinking and fast!?

[Paleo Conservative]

How much oil in the ground is a closely guarded secret. Oil companies only tell part of the story, IMHO.

No CEO in his right mind would overstate reserves, because of the probablility of being prosecuted under Sarbanes Oxley.

[Paleo Conservative]

How is chinas population growing rapidly when they’ve only been allowed to have one child per couple??? include the fact that everyone chose to have male babies shouldn’t their population be shrinking and fast!?

Population keeps growing, because death rate are decreasing, and people live longer. Their economic growth has been much higher than population growth.

[megatherium]

Part of the problem is that the oil companies are only 14% of the oil market now, most of the market is now the national oil companies. So we don't have access to audited numbers on oil reserves and so forth. A key part of the peak oil argument is the claim that the Saudis have substantially overstated their reserves. Unfortunately, we can't be sure what the Saudis have, one way or the other.

I'm not a big peak oil believer; we're not running out of oil. But we are now running low on the cheap stuff. We're now using advanced drilling and prospecting methods, we're drilling in deep oceans and in difficult locations. And we're now starting an inevitable transition from liquid ("conventional") petroleum to stuff like tar sands. (That's good news, ultimately, because we have vast amounts of oil shale and tar sands in North America.)

[loreldan]

In the 1990’s it was tech stocks; that crashed. Then they moved to real estate; that crashed. Now they’re investing/speculating in oil and gold. I wonder what the next boom and bust will be.

[fso301]

bump

[Mind-numbed Robot]

Congress decided to put a moratorium on new drilling on public land and developing oil shale. Congress has gotten in bed with Eco Freaks to get money and make Bush look bad at the same time and are about to wreck the country.

And there you have it. All the rest of the facts are window dressing.

[familyop]

"Energy: Analysts have found that investors spooked by the peak oil theory — the belief that crude production has topped out and is in decline — are partly behind the soaring oil prices. Someone should set them straight."

A few "analysts" (import propagandists) are a little retarded, as indicated by their projection of their own problem on investors. Rising oil prices and increases in domestic manufacturing are inevitable.

[FastCoyote]

[People are going to have to pay to get rid of the stuff someday.]

Its got all the earmarks of a classic bubble, doesn’t it. Irrational exuberance driven by Green fear. And some point, supply and demand curves have to adjust. Just wish I knew how to short the top effectively.

[LenS]

True. The demand for oil in China is all about everyone wanting to get a car to replace that bicycle or scooter.

Even with people living longer, the one child policy has dropped China’s total fertility rate to 1.6, well below replacement levels. The Population Research Bureau is even projecting that China’s total population will actually begin to shrink between 2025 and 2050 by nearly 40 million. Obviously, trends can change but the one child policy has really become entrenched within China and the bureaucracy. Thus, making such a change may require a radical change in China.