Monday, 5 March 2007

Interesting Times Ahead

Global stock markets have begun to decline this past week yet the biggest economic news of recent times has yet to hit the mainstream, Saudi Arabian oil output has declined by eight percent in the last year, despite a massive increase in their hiring of oil rigs. They are drilling as fast as they can but output is falling.

Indonesia is now a net oil importer and Australia wont be far behind, Russia, Venezuela and Iran are past peak, Mexico's Cantarell field is declining at 15%, Nigeria and Iraq are so unstable they are untouchable and the North Sea fields are crashing.

Peak oil is no longer a theory and an economic depression is a certainty, get out of debt and downsize your lifestyle while the economy is still functioning

See also
The Oil Drum
Clusterfuck Nation

3 comments:

Big Gav said...

I agree about getting out of debt and living a sustainable lifestyle but I'd be a little wary of predicting the peak just yet (in Saudi or worldwide).

Saudi production has gone up and down over the years (and it hasn't gone down 8% this time - its on a trend to go down 8% over the whole year) - they've always been the swing producer and may well just be keeping market prices where they want them - above $50 a barrel - at this point....

James said...

My thoughts too. That the Saudi production decrease is for economic rather than technical reasons.

Good new blog.

The Naked Mechanic said...

I find it hard to articulate a gut assumption let alone justify it but I'll stick by the call as ignoring gut feelings has usually preceded / led to major fuck ups in my life :)

Ghawar Is Dead! by Matthew S. Miller offers a similar point of view. http://energybulletin.net/27024.html