Moderators: Elvis, DrVolin, Jeff
stickdog99 wrote:I don't think you get my main point, which is that the vast majority of the oil that currently comes from SA, Iraq and Iran costs far less than $5 dollars a barrel to get out of the ground. Much of it costs less than $2.50 a barrel to extract and barrel. So the current markup up on the price of a barrel of this oil is generally well over 2000% just at barrel price. Then when you refine it into heating oil and gas that you sell $3.50+ a gallon, you are looking at a truly crazy mark up considering how cheap it is to produce this kind of oil.
Do you agree or disagree?
Two: I've come to think that IF there is not a peak oil problem, and we are doing things like tar sands and shale, then there really is a concerted effort to destroy the planet. And that's probably, if someone held a gun to my head, what I would admit to.
eyeno wrote:Two: I've come to think that IF there is not a peak oil problem, and we are doing things like tar sands and shale, then there really is a concerted effort to destroy the planet. And that's probably, if someone held a gun to my head, what I would admit to.
No conspiracy need apply here.
There is a myth that basically states "If we were not running out of oil, then why would we be going to extremes to extract oil from tar sands when there are much easier methods?"
The answer is simple....
Simple economics. A barrel of oil extracted at a profit is a barrel of oil extracted at a profit regardless of the fact that some wells produce higher profits than others.
There Will Be Oil
For decades, advocates of 'peak oil' have been predicting a crisis in energy supplies. They've been wrong at every turn, says Daniel Yergin.
Sept 7, 2011
Since the beginning of the 21st century, a fear has come to pervade the prospects for oil, fueling anxieties about the stability of global energy supplies. It has been stoked by rising prices and growing demand, especially as the people of China and other emerging economies have taken to the road.
This specter goes by the name of "peak oil."
Its advocates argue that the world is fast approaching (or has already reached) a point of maximum oil output. They warn that "an unprecedented crisis is just over the horizon." The result, it is said, will be "chaos," to say nothing of "war, starvation, economic recession, possibly even the extinction of homo sapiens."
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Dan Yergin says the global supply of oil and gas has risen in the last 20 years, defying the predictions of "peak oil" theorists. In the Big Interview with WSJ's David Wessel, he looks at the world's energy future.
The date of the predicted peak has moved over the years. It was once supposed to arrive by Thanksgiving 2005. Then the "unbridgeable supply demand gap" was expected "after 2007." Then it was to arrive in 2011. Now "there is a significant risk of a peak before 2020."
But there is another way to visualize the future availability of oil: as a "plateau."
In this view, the world has decades of further growth in production before flattening out into a plateau—perhaps sometime around midcentury—at which time a more gradual decline will begin. And that decline may well come not from a scarcity of resources but from greater efficiency, which will slacken global demand.
Those sounding the alarm over oil argue that about half the world's oil resources already have been produced and that the point of decline is nearing. "It's quite a simple theory and one that any beer-drinker understands," said the geologist Colin Campbell, one of the leaders of the movement. "The glass starts full and ends empty, and the faster you drink it, the quicker it's gone."
This is actually the fifth time in modern history that we've seen widespread fear that the world was running out of oil. The first was in the 1880s, when production was concentrated in Pennsylvania and it was said that no oil would be found west of the Mississippi. Then oil was found in Texas and Oklahoma. Similar fears emerged after the two world wars. And in the 1970s, it was said that the world was going to fall off the "oil mountain." But since 1978, world oil output has increased by 30%.
more...
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904060604576572552998674340.html?google_editors_picks=true
]Iran to produce oil for 100 more years
Tue Jan 3, 2012 5:0PM GMT
Iran's oil minister says the country has enough reserves to produce oil for the next 100 years, while most countries will lose their reserves in the next 30 years.
Rostam Qasemi said on Tuesday that the oil reserves of other Middle Eastern countries will be depleted in the next 60 years. He went on to say that the member states of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) own 70 percent of the global oil reserves with non-member oil producers having the remaining 30 percent.
“This comes while the share of the OPEC members in [global] oil production stands at 40 percent with non-member [oil-producing] countries having a 60-percent share,” he said.
The minister added that Iran's in-place oil reserves have been estimated to be at 600 billion barrels, adding that the country ranks first in terms of total oil and gas reserves.
Qasemi said Iran, the second biggest oil producer of OPEC, has the world's second largest gas reserves and is the fourth producer of natural gas in the world.
He stated that about 99.5 percent of the Iranian cities and 50 percent of villages are currently burning gas, putting the country ahead of Russia in this regard.
The minister added that the commercial value of Iran's total annual oil and gas output stands at USD 220 billion.
Qasemi added that the country's gas output should exceed one billion cubic meters per day by the end of the Iranian calendar year 1394 (March 20, 2015).
Iraq’s Basra on way to become world’s largest oil center
Azzaman, December 30, 2011
Iraq’s southern city of Basra is to emerge as the world’s largest oil center once current plans to boost the country’s oil output are completed, the Oil Ministry says.
“Basra produces the largest portion of (Iraq’s) oil because it has the largest fields,” said the ministry’s spokesperson Asem al-Jihad. “Concessions and service deals to develop southern oil fields … will certainly positively reflect on the Province turning Basra into (the world’s) largest city.”
Jihad said in a few years Basra would churn out 6-8 million barrels a day, a figure unmatched by any one city in the world.
“Basra has all the ingredients needed to develop its oil and gas riches,” he said. “This is a city that floats on a lake of oil, possesses efficient (oil) infrastructure and an extensive pipeline network.”
Basra currently produces more than 2 million barrels of oil a day, with nearly 1.8 million barrels a day earmarked for exports out of total Iraqi daily exports of about 2.1 million.
[url]http://www.azzaman.com/english/index.asp?fname=news\2011-12-30\kurd.htm[/url]
Oil - Iran
Following the 1979 Iranian Revolution, Khomeini's government shifted the emphasis by decreeing a policy of oil conservation, with production reduced to a level sufficient to do no more than meet foreign exchange needs.
The efforts, initiated by the Shah, to develop the petrochemical industry were thwarted by the Iran-Iraq War.
Ben D wrote:Seems the dip in your graph is due to the change in policy following the overthrow of the Shah, and then for both Iran and Iraq, the consequences of the Iran - Iraq War...
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 160 guests