RE: "In a three year period, OPEC reserves doubled as countries jockeyed for their production allocations. Not one barrel of new oil was discovered to account for this accounting chicanery."
This type of argument is probably the one that bugs me the most on the Peak Oil theories I've seen. If OPEC is producing at capacity, then there is no reason to try getting more on the market. If the argument is "They aren't producing more oil because they can't.", then you shoot yourself in the foot by saying "They're trying to cheat so they can produce more oil.".
When oil prices cratered in 1997-1998 to under $13 per barrel, everyone in the oil patch was in a blind panic. Iraq was largely blamed for the over supply, although everyone was cheating at the time. Both invasions of Iraq served one purpose and that is to shut down Iraqi oil production to boost prices.
Drilling new wells costs money, about half a million dollars per hole. Out of every 10 wells drilled, 3 of them will be dry. On average, to get one good producing well costs about a million bucks and that doesn't include the cost of the seismic data used to identify locations to drill. That's typical of US and Canadian companies, although I understand Middle Eastern oil is much more accessible, and less expensive to produce.
The US has been explored and drilled to death. On that count the Oil Peakers are right. The US wasn't an especially oil rich area to start with, and the US oil companies used up the easily accessible sources a long time ago. For oil fields in OPEC, producing more oil is nothing more than drilling new wells and moving it to market.
For all practical purposes, the Peak Oil theory is right wing, US oil company propaganda. It's sole purpose is to justify US oil companies taking oil that doesn't belong to them by force. If you buy into the theory, then 9/11 is okay, the invasion of Iraq is okay, and maybe we should invade Mexico, Iran, China, Russia and Saudi Arabia while we're at it. After all, it's all for a good cause; keeping the profits rolling in for the US robber barons.
If you want a quick, easy solution to a big chunk of excess world oil consumption, stop handing out driver's licenses to people who don't know how to drive. Instead of allowing a hand full of morons to snarl traffic for billions of miles, while everyone's oil is going up in smoke, get the morons off the road. Unfortunately, I sincerely doubt you'll ever get that one past the US oil companies. |
