Article

2005-05-28 Home Front: Economy

Experts: Petroleum May Be Nearing a Peak

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Posted by anonymous2u 2005-05-28 19:24|| || Front Page|| [3 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 Are these the same experts who predicted $2/g back around 1990?

Posted by anonymous2u 2005-05-28 19:26|| 2005-05-28 19:26|| Front Page Top

#2 "some observers" = shopped around until the agenda background sourcing was covered, lazy journalism (a repetitive phrase)....

Posted by Frank G">Frank G 2005-05-28 19:41|| 2005-05-28 19:41|| Front Page Top

#3 Yes, and I am an expert on sexual habits of the Amazon tribe Bororo. I predicted they would have no sex once they get TVs, but they showed me a middle finger, lusty savages!

Posted by Anthropologist 2005-05-28 19:50|| 2005-05-28 19:50|| Front Page Top

#4 Mark Espinosa, please phone home.

Posted by Mrs. Davis 2005-05-28 19:54|| 2005-05-28 19:54|| Front Page Top

#5 Oil: Caveat empty
Without any press conferences, grand announcements, or hyperbolic advertising campaigns, the Exxon Mobil Corporation, one of the world's largest publicly owned petroleum companies, has quietly joined the ranks of those who are predicting an impending plateau in non-OPEC oil production. Their report, The Outlook for Energy: A 2030 View, forecasts a peak in just five years.

Posted by john 2005-05-28 19:59|| 2005-05-28 19:59|| Front Page Top

#6 After the first few paragraphs its actually not a bad article and gets it mostly right. The main thing I would add is we can get vehicle fuel from sources other than conventional oil at less than 20$/barrel - in all likleyhood as much as we want for many years. The problem is the risk of cheap oil. It sounds paradoxical but (the risk of) cheap oil prevents us having cheap fuel.

Posted by phil_b 2005-05-28 20:10|| 2005-05-28 20:10|| Front Page Top

#7 Don't believe the hype. The only place we'll get it in the pants is the military because they never put flexible fuel engines into their designs.
We're the 2nd largest Ethanol producer in the world behind Brazil. We use corn and they use sugar cane to produce it. Using the 85/15 eth/petrol mix it will help extend the "sky is falling" date. Most cars of today can already use the 10/90 eth/petrol mix as well. Plus it's better for the environment. A truckload of pure ethanol overturns and bursts open and you simply pick up the truck and leave, It evaporates quickly and environmentally safe. (Mixed, of course, is another story.)

Also, there is Biodiesel, which has been used in France for the last 20 years for public transportation. It would require about a $1,000 mod to current diesel engines to use. What is it made from? Soy Bean, vegtable oil, and even used cooking oil and when it burns it smells like popcorn or french fries (Mmmmm)
I know I just did the research for a paper on why we should switch to alternatives. It ened up being one saying screw alternative fuels and suck the oil dry. Why? Because the same people that buy $75,000 SUV's and then cry us a river when gas goes up 2 cents a gallon ALWAYS buy the 2 cent cheaper gas. Remember when people started to use ethanol in 78'? When ethanol usage went up oil supply then increased thereby dropping oil prices (along with other factors) and consumers jumped back to the cheaper oil again. So, just suck the oil until it becomes too costly to extract and refine, then we simply move over to alternatives fuels. Plus we'll get to watch as the Middle Eastern countries' economies collapse since their lazy asses never developed technologically like the West did.
As a matter of fact, it's ironic that OPEC's use of oil as a weapon in 73' and 78' helped to get us where we are today with alternative fuels. Thanks Ackmed!
Now let's stop paying those farm subsidies and get thsoe farmers planting soy beans for our 75k SUV's! AND it's a renewable resource too! Sorry Ackmed, your Daddy shouldn't have tried to screw with the US in the first place.

Here are some links if you'd like to read more about it:

http://www.globalstewards.org/biodiesel.htm
http://www.eere.energy.gov/biomass/ethanol.html
http://www.eere.energy.gov/biomass/renewable_diesel.html

Posted by 98zulu 2005-05-28 20:31|| 2005-05-28 20:31|| Front Page Top

#8 These doomsayers live in an idealized production and consumption universe and they just don't grasp the reality. First of all, the only oil there is a potential shortfall of is LSC, "Light, Sweet Crude". But if you want HSC "Heavy, Sour Crude", it's everywhere. But you have to pay extra to refine it. Most of LSC is tied up years in advance by the major economic powers, in long term contracts. Its production rate and price are both guaranteed and don't change day-to-day. Oil in this market is about $35/bbl. So that means that all the hoo-hah takes place in the "spot market", where you sell oil at whatever price you can get for it. If the major powers want "extra" oil, this is where they get it, easily outbidding the third and fourth world, who get all of their oil here. That is, those least able to afford it are those that pay the most for it. If the price goes up too high, the poor countries just can't afford it, and the powers adjust towards economy or alternatives just a little bit and they don't need to buy "extra." And this is why we keep progressing towards "peak oil", but we never get there.

Posted by Anonymoose 2005-05-28 20:45|| 2005-05-28 20:45|| Front Page Top

#9 Let's skip ethanol and go straight to cold fusion station wagons.

Posted by Shipman 2005-05-28 21:08|| 2005-05-28 21:08|| Front Page Top

#10 Oil: Caveat empty

from the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists.

Who set their doomsday clock (isn't that scary!) to three minutes till midnight in 1984, just as Reagan was sealing the fate of the Former soviet union. And they now say it's seven minutes till midnight and we're out of oil. Say good night, Gracy.

Good night Gracy.

Posted by Mrs. Davis 2005-05-28 21:11|| 2005-05-28 21:11|| Front Page Top

#11 Just in time for the new OIL STORM minidrama - PEARL HARBOR was the desperate, power-mad Failed Left's PC declaration of war against America, democapitalism, and rightism, then came THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW, the Left's PC demand for Global Socialism and OWG now, iff only to save the earth and Clintonian Rightists-for-Socialism, includ Enviromentalism. Global Socialism, Global Regulation, and Global Deficit Spending is good for Armani and the environment. "VICTORY BELONGS TO THOSE WHOM BELIEVE IT THE LONGEST", to paraphrase Alex Baldwin as Colonel Doolittle - the Failed Left is giving America up to the year 2020 to give in to Socialism, vv the CLintons, or else be militarily and radioactively destroyed!?

Posted by JosephMendiola">JosephMendiola 2005-05-28 21:39|| n/a]">[n/a] 2005-05-28 21:39|| Front Page Top

#12 By Gawd I couldn't say it better myself! Sigh Ho! Throw out the skirmishers and prepare to commence!

Posted by Shipman 2005-05-28 22:32|| 2005-05-28 22:32|| Front Page Top

#13 JM's got it!

Posted by Frank G">Frank G 2005-05-28 22:50|| 2005-05-28 22:50|| Front Page Top

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