Wikileaks shows peak oil is a reality

amcluesent

WikiLeaks cables: Saudi Arabia cannot pump enough oil to keep a lid on prices

The US fears that Saudi Arabia, the world's largest crude oil exporter, may not have enough reserves to prevent oil prices escalating, confidential cables from its embassy in Riyadh show.

The cables, released by WikiLeaks, urge Washington to take seriously a warning from a senior Saudi government oil executive that the kingdom's crude oil reserves may have been overstated by as much as 300bn barrels – nearly 40%.

FACT - If the world runs out of oil this fast then we will be cast back to the dark ages (let alone a depression too) in pretty short order.

Asheron

Wiki Leaks is psyop by the CIA and MI5 it's a very clever propaganda campaign, don't believe any of it. In every government they have a specialist department.

Psychological operations are planned propaganda operations to convey selected information and indicators to foreign audiences to influence their emotions, motives, objective reasoning, and ultimately the behaviour of foreign governments, organisations, groups, and individuals.

But yes Oil is going to $150 - $200 but not because of that Peak Oil Lie....

Buy a book called 'Energy non Crisis'

zappahey

When conspiracy theories collide ...

StevieJ

I would have Ash nailed on to be be a Peak Oily

Generali

StevieJ wrote: »

I would have Ash nailed on to be be a Peak Oily

Conspiracy theory is merely a conspiracy to mask the true conspiracy is a true internet classic.

asc99c

That we're getting close to peak oil isn't a particularly controversial idea any more. Plenty of people have suggested we may have gone past it already, and we'll 100% definitely get there one day. Slowly rising oil prices could be a good thing for the UK, since we're now importing fossil fuels overall. For one thing, coal mining in the UK could return to profitability, and more north sea oil will become exploitable. We actually do pretty well on lower quality reserves. We've also got a decent technology base around various renewable energy sources.

One thing I've not heard much about is trying to manage the increase in costs. We've already seen all kinds of problems in pricing with speculators getting themselves involved. If we do nothing, we'll get to a stage where oil prices start reliably rising by more than other investments. And at that point the speculators will really pile in and buy up oil to sell later at a profit. That is the scenario that could bring on a depression in my opinion.

A._Badger

Shale oil and gas.

Put the foil hats away, chaps.

AD9898_2

A._Badger wrote: »

Shale oil and gas.

Put the foil hats away, chaps.

Lol, check the EROEI value, then weep.

It is not oil the world's economies require, it's 'cheap oil', which is something completely different, it is this that we have built our society on today. Without it or without a miracle, our current way of life is toast I'm afraid.

Mr_Mumble

New drilling method opens vast oil fields in US

U.S. oil production climbed steadily through most of the last century and reached a peak of 9.6 million barrels per day in 1970. The decline since was slowed by new production in Alaska in the 1980s and in the Gulf of Mexico more recently. But by 2008, production had fallen to 5 million barrels per day.

A halving of production in 40 years and America is not a Mad Max dystopia. Must be rather disconcerting for chicken lickens.

AD9898 wrote: »

It is not oil the world's economies require, it's 'cheap oil', which is something completely different, it is this that we have built our society on today. Without it or without a miracle, our current way of life is toast I'm afraid.

The British government could drop the cost of petrol two-thirds by scrapping petrol taxes. Oil is cheap, very cheap. LNG is a simple enough alternative with ample supply if we got a major oil shock (unlikely given a huge ramp up in Iraq and huge finds off the BRIC coasts).

A._Badger

AD9898 wrote: »

Lol, check the EROEI value, then weep.

It is not oil the world's economies require, it's 'cheap oil', which is something completely different, it is this that we have built our society on today. Without it or without a miracle, our current way of life is toast I'm afraid.

Read and weep.

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/01/21/shale-gas-boom-on/

I realise some posters here grew up on a diet of thrilling disaster movies and are in love with a doomsday scenario, but even Patrick Moore, the founder of Greenpeace thinks it's balls.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/02/08/patrick_moore_greenpeace_dropout/

It's time to get over the secular substitute for original sin.

asc99c

Neither of your linked articles actually addresses the economics of the shift away from cheap oil. As I've said earlier I am optimistic that the world won't end when cheap oil runs out, just that we need to be prepared to manage the transition. Because as AD9898 suggests, our current economy is based on cheap oil, and changing it suddenly shouldn't happen.

Also on a separate rant ... your Greenpeace bloke suggests again that global warming isn't a problem because the world has been warmer in the past. This is irrelevant, because the world will survive. Some species will have problems - I don't think it is likely to be a mass extinction event. But if the ice sheets melt as they have in the past, sea levels inevitably rise, and it's us humans who have problems since we've built so much immovable infrastructure on the shores. Most of the worlds major cities would need immense amounts of money spent on sea defences.