Posted on 12/03/2014 9:49:35 AM PST by Hojczyk
In a chilling 2010 column, Paul Krugman declared: “peak oil has arrived.”
So it’s really not surprising that the national average for a gallon of gas has fallen to $2.77 this week – in 10 states it was under $2.60 – and analysts predict we’re going to dip below the two-dollar mark soon. U.S. oil is down to $75 a barrel, a drop of more than $30 from the 52-week high.
Meanwhile, the Institute for Energy Research estimates that we have enough natural gas in the U.S. to meet electricity needs for around 575 years at current fuel demand and to fuel homes heated by natural gas for 857 years or so – because we have more gas than Russia, Iran, Qatar and Saudi Arabia combined.
One thing is for sure, the technological advancement we’ve seen in extracting fossil fuels is light-years ahead of the progress we’ve made in the state-planned alternative energy infrastructure. Yet, the same people who were skeptics of shale and are now skeptical of methane hydrate believe windmills will solve our non-existent crisis. Probably because progress can often be confused with wishful thinking.
After all, it might not be President Obama’s ideological obstinacy that sinks the Keystone pipeline, but economic reality. Saudi Arabia, the biggest OPEC producer, plans to cut its oil prices to preserve market share and hurt North American shale production. The Canadian Energy Research Institute estimates that the pipeline needs to extract a price of $85 a barrel to be profitable at all. The price is still right but it might not be for long.
(Excerpt) Read more at realclearpolitics.com ...
“The price is still right but it might not be for long.”
Oh it won’t be for long for sure. The Saud’s will make certain the prices shoot right back up to provide them their financing of World terror along with other Islamist countries.
Right now they are just putting down the competition long enough to make them think twice about investing in competing with them again.
Well, that saves dinosaur in my back yard. I was going to kill the darn thing to create oil for the next generation.
Now I have to feed it.
This from the functional retard that told us the internet would have no bigger impact on the economy than the fax machine.
Referring to Krugman, not the author of the article. Should have been more clear.
$2.769/gal here in southern DE.
Should be at least 20 cents cheaper based on the RBOB of gasoline the past ten days.
Did you name it Dino after the Sinclair dinosaur?
It is my belief that oil is being constantly created by natural processes in the earth.
So ... in a way, one could say we will never run out of oil.
However. I do believe oil will become harder and more expensive to extract over time. Unless a system similar to crop rotation is employed.
>>Did you name it Dino after the Sinclair dinosaur?<<
Well, yes but it was after the Flintstones... Don’t tell him about the Sinlcair dino — it will give him a swollen head.
>>However. I do believe oil will become harder and more expensive to extract over time. Unless a system similar to crop rotation is employed.<<
They seem to have that fracking thing down pretty well.
yes, that has helped release oil from otherwise hard to extract areas, but eventually that will also be played out (at least for awhile)
I do believe that if left alone nearly any old oil field will in time replenish itself.
If Krugman declared that the sky was blue, I'd have to step outside and look just to be sure.
Yes and a few years ago I read a science report affirming the same. Can't remember the report or where I got it but it seem that the hot center of the earth somehow is like a furnace and decomposition will continue on earth for an unlimited time. I might have misunderstood it since science is not my bag.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abiogenic_petroleum_origin
Not everyone accepts the theory, but it sure is interesting.
There is an assumption in any attempt to quantify the amount of oil that we can get to.
That assumption includes constant technology and current prices.
Yes, there is a limit as to how much oil can/will be extracted at current prices and technology.
But it’s impossible to determine how much total oil is available with changing technologies and higher profit motives.
I was interested in what it said about the amount of natural gas we have. With all that gas,I have to wonder why so many home heating bills are so high. From what I can see,the gas price for what is used is cheap enough,but then they add on every little item to the itemized bill,such as the CEO’s 2nd wife’s nephew’s 401K.
Oil is a b-product of the natural decomposition of organic material. Put under intense pressure and heat, oil is created from the slurry. As long as life exists on the planet, we will have oil.
We have not found even 10% of what is in the crust alone. We are constantly finding more. "Peak oil" is just another liberal (Krugman) canard. We will move on to other energy sources long before we run out of fossil fuels... so it makes ZERO sense to leave it in the ground when it is at its most valuable.
>>I do believe that if left alone nearly any old oil field will in time replenish itself.<<
It worked for my ex-wife...
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