The Story:
“It is highly probable that Russia’s continental shelf resources may enlarge by 1.2 million square kilometers outside the 200-mile economic zone in the Arctic Ocean. That area may contain 9-10 billion tons of energy resources,” said Natural Resources Ministry’s Institute of World Ocean Geology and Mineral Resources Director Prof. Valery Kamensky.
The Comment:
Everyone is jocking for position in the battle for control of the greatest field of resources to be harvested in this century. The arctic may contain 25% of the world energy resources. These are new resources, yet to be tapped. The oil companies and the Peak Oil promoters claim they haven’t found any new oil in 25 years. Oddly enough they don’t include the oil found off the coast of Brazil estimated to be as much as in Saudi Arabia (a lot), or the heavy oil of Canada (a very lot), or what they are expected to find in the Arctic (a ton).
It is odd that they don’t include ANY of the new finds and still base their peak theory only on existing reserves which by-the-way are projected to last for another 100 years in some cases. Furthermore, when investigating the sources of the data that support the Peak Oil theory, I could only find oil company source data. There is NO independent data available. Apparently, only the oil companies know for sure how much oil they have available to them, and they don’t let others do independent research on their reserves.
I am not suggesting that the oil companies are lying to us, but I am saying that the mouse is clearly in charge of the cheese.
Here is a question that needs answering. Everyone knows how outrageously profitable the oil business is, yet they haven’t built a single refinery in 20+ years. They also don’t seem to concerned about finding more oil. So it would appear that they are not reinvesting in this very profitable business. Instead they are taking all the profits and doing something else with them. So why???
I laugh and cry when the daily news asserts that “prices climbed to record highs today on concerns about supplies or refining capabilities.” But the thing that makes me the most mad is the common attitude that if you question the peak oil theory you are either an idiot or an enemy of humanity. The corporate owned media is brainwashing the entire population into thinking that if you challenge their story, you must be minimized. The most diabolic thing is that the people who reject legitimate discussion on the topic are those who are promoted as rationale and progressive by the establishment.
The thought control is evident in a few other areas such as the theory of evolution verses intelligent design(see the film Expelled), and Global Warming. Where are the forerunners and boat rockers who don’t mind asking the tough questions.
SUBSCRIBE: Receive automatic updates for new posts to this blog click here: weblog posts
Oil is in fact an extremely well researched topic, including the status of oil reserves. Refer to the Energy Watch Group’s Crude Oil Supply Outlook Report (do a Google search for Energy Watch Group). Price manipulations notwithstanding, (and, yes, they do affect the price volatility we’ve been seeing of late) the EWG concludes that peak oil is now. Increased price volatility does, in fact, occur when consumption of any non renewable resource begins to outstrip production. EWG backs up their conclusions with an exhaustive review of the entire world oil situation.
Oh, by the way, recently discovered offshore Brazilian reserves were trumpeted as being “approximately 30 billion barrels”. To put this into perspective, this is equivalent to approximately 1 year of global oil consumption at 2007 rates – hardly equivalent to Saudi Arabian oil reserves, I would think.
What I think you’re not understanding is that there’s a proven numerical relationship between new oil discoveries and remaining oil reserves. This is bearing itself out in virtually every oil producing country, including the contiguous U.S. (peaked around 1970, almost exactly as predicted).
Yes, there is, in fact, a lot of oil left in the ground, including the tar sands, oil shales and offshore polar reserves. It’s just getting more and more costly, both in terms of energy costs and capital costs, to extract it and bring it to market. Add to this the externalized costs, not only of the production and consumption of oil, but for virtually any fossil fuel.
The question we, as a society, need to be asking is: “at what point do we admit that our addiction to fossil fuels (particularly oil and coal) is becoming too costly, both to the environmental life support systems we depend on, and to human society?” Sustainability lies in the direction of renewable energy, not fossil fuels.
At the very least Canada should be following the example of countries like Norway by setting a price on carbon, with a view towards investing in a post fossil fuel economy, which Norwegians seem to realize – unlike many Canadians – is imminent.
Ok so now it is 2016 and the price of oil is close to 20.00/barrel and the world is “flush” with oil. There are no shortages…that was clearly non-sense. Putting a price on carbon (as you suggest) really means taxing the average person to build a post-oil future for the world. If that were true, then WHY have profoundly significant inventions like the plasma reactor and many other world-and-game changing innovations been ignored by people who say they want to save the planet. Sorry, so far the “facts” you ascribe to, are no facts at all.
Oh one more thing you say that there are only 30 million barrels of oil in the Brazilian “find” here is what the the geologists say about that –
Brazilian oil deposits below a layer of salt in the Atlantic Ocean hold at least 123 billion barrels of reserves, more than double government estimates, according to a university study by a former Petroleo Brasileiro SA geologist. Bloomberg January 19, 2011