Thursday, February 11, 2010

Much Bigger Crisis Looming: Peak Oil


As Europe's leaders gather in Brussels today, they have only one crisis in mind: the debts that threaten the stability of the European Union. They are unlikely to be in any mood to listen to warnings about a different crisis that is looming and that could cause massive disruption.
A shortage of oil could be a real problem for the world within a fairly short period of time. It was unfortunate for the group which chose to point this out yesterday that they should have chosen to do so on the day the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, or OPEC, reported that the effects of the financial downturn had led to a slight downgrade in its forecast for oil consumption this year.
Reuters
The North Sea Shearwater platform was producing years beyond expectations.
Against the gloomy economic backdrop that Europe currently provides, siren voices shrieking that a potential energy crisis is imminent and could be worse than the credit crunch are liable to be dismissed as scaremongers. Since they are led by Sir Richard Branson, whose Virgin group runs an energy-guzzling airline, and include Brian Souter, who runs Stagecoach, another energy-hungry transport business, they are also at risk of being seen as self-interested scaremongers.
But the work of the Industry Taskforce on Peak Oil and Energy Security shouldn't be disparagingly dismissed. Its arguments are well founded and lead it to the conclusion that, while the global downturn may have delayed it by a couple of years, peak oil—the point at which global production reaches its maximum—is no more than five years away. Governments and corporations need to use the intervening years to speed up the development of and move toward other energy sources and increased energy efficiency.

23 comments:

  1. This is one I actually dont put much into. I remember hearing oil would all be gone by the turn of the century 100% for sure. America alone has a ton of it untapped in Alaska and offshore due to the environmental lobby and others.

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  2. 3:56 it takes 10 years to get it out of the ground and into a refinery then to the consumer. 98% of the refineries are in full use. Get the facts first. We can have all the OIL in the world in the ground it means nothing

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  3. PEAK OILIS JUST ANOTHER SCAM LIKE GLOBAL WARMING. THE WORLD IS DROWNING IN OIL--OIL THAT HAS ALREADY BEEN FOUND AND THAT IS EASILY ACCESSIBLE. PROGRESSION OF TECHNOLOGY EXPANDS THE WORLD'S VAST OIL AND GAS RESERVES ON A REGULAR BASIS.

    PEAK OIL IS A SCAM! A DISCREDITED SCAM!

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  4. 10 years my ass
    For Forty years I drilled and produced Oil and gas in the Pittsfield Oil patch in N.W.Pa.

    We pumped Zillions of barrels of Oil into
    the original pennzoil refrac station and refinery
    outside of titusville, pa.

    These cats could turn 100 tankers of light sweet crude into #1 Diesel / Kero in 72 hours.

    All they had was 4 tower cookers and 3 lines; didn't make no gasoline just diesel and Kero but boy could they make her.

    Course now - we can't drill & it takes the saudis
    6 months just to figger out how to get here without runnin' aground
    Diesel in

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  5. A sobering thought. Once we truly experience the total onset of the coming financial collapse and manufacturing comes to a standstill, the demand for petroleum products will be greatly diminshed. Nations that require petroleum and cannot purchase the commodity will iniate war to obtain it or any other commodity necessary. History bears this fact out.

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  6. Peak oil is a fraud and oil is not dino crap either. The earth regenerates oil and the oil companies know this. If another cheap source replaced oil based fuels the would would be swimming in new found cheap oil.

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  7. Peak oil is real. You had better believe it.
    Hubbard proved it. With several Billion Chinese
    just starting to become an automobile society
    and every other country desiring the same lavish
    lifestyle as America it is only a short matter of time before oil/ gasoline skyrockets again.
    the earth does replenish oil , it only takes several million years! Oil is a finite resource
    that will run out someday.

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  8. We are going to run out of credit, oil, air and fish in the sea.

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  9. Here's what the oil companies don't want you Americans to know...

    Motionless Electromagnetic Generator

    Scroll to bottom of main page.

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  10. 1000 watts of energy is laid down on the earth per square meter by the sun. As solar panel technology advances absorbing this energy will get better, it is the free mans only hope of removing himself from the grid and having free electricity...

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  11. Whether the world has the ability to produce oil and fuel in a moments notice to keep up with demand is not the issue. The issue is power, control and money. We have seen and experienced OPEC cutting production to drive prices up. They can cause us to plummet into a depression if they decide to drive up prices. It would be so easy to just finish us off. Why would they do that you ask. Good question. Why would some Saudi's fly planes into the World Trade Centers. They can finish us off anytime they are ready. The economic mess we are in right now only needs a slight push. Will it be the Chinese forcing us to sell them food---driving up our national food prices? Will OPEC do us in by driving up fuel prices again by cutting oil production? Will the failure of the FDIC or SS funds depleted or hyperinflation... etc. etc. etc.

    Face it, we are so fragile right now any country that wants to finish us off can do it in a flash. Sad isn't it?

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  12. All these guys who claim to have a free energy device always say they need money for funding and research, if it actually works just publish the damn thing and exactly how to build it on the internet for free and ask for a small donation if it works and you will be rich beyond your dreams. If their motives are altruistic they will be rewarded by the masses and these devices will be available to the world before any force, group or country could ever prevent it.

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  13. Here we go again. Another round of peak oil to freak everyone out and drive our oil prices sky-high. Of course they dismiss the new reserved found all over the world all the time. It's all a game to drive fear. Interesting this is happening now when I just hear on the news the other day that the big three's profits have dropped for the first time. It's all fixed. It's all a game.

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  14. Get a grip bozo. Peak oil is a reality. What is important is sharing the truth, not towing the line of other conspiracy sites. Look into the facts then make an informed judgment.

    Abiotic oil and free energy devices are the real hype.

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  15. 7:21 that is what I always say. Moreover, if they are fearful of their lives, as what is commonly puported, all the more reason to spread it out on to the internet for others to try out at home. If it really worked then we would have some working backyard models to see for ourselves.

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  16. 7:08 Photovoltaic panels/technologies is fairly advanced now and there is new technology that is just months from production. The real and most current problem is energy storage. Creating a storage system (rechargeable Battery) that will hold enough power to get you through the cloudy days is still in it's infancy. There are systems out there, but you can't afford them. The feds have to figure out how to make tax on these systems daily. It won't due to make tax on them just on purchase and or installation. How can municipalities make tax on them everyday if it is unmetered. I would screw up the whole system. Now... we can't that now can we.

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  17. No oil=Economic collapse

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  18. We are dependent on Oil only because the Oligarchs love it as a system of control and profit. Watch the film Zeitgeist Addendum about alternate energy sources that have been kept from us such as thermal energy.

    Safe, clean sources of power.

    Or even 'free energy' systems originally conceived by the greatest inventor of all time, Nicolai Tesla.

    Most don't know the man simply because JP Morgan made sure his inventions were kept from the masses.

    The developed world really does not need to be dependent on oil, and no we won't go back to being cavemen without it. Peak Oil is a lie because it compounds upon a lie. That lie being that oil is our only realistic source of power.

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  19. the peak oil theory doesnt apply to what is actually in the ground , it only means that the PRODUCTION , the will to make to transform it has been severly impeded by greed to drive the price sky high , peak oil as in (there is non left in the ground ) is TOTAL B.S .

    Oil is a renewable ressource , although there is much better alternative , and yes they do have electro magnetic free energy , but will never be released to us never !

    Oil is renewable becasue it is the byproduct of the earths core , made from the volcanic ash inside the earths crust , do a little research instead of beleiving mainstream crappola

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  20. We have oil under the Dakota’s that is 3-4 times the size of Middle East, Oil Shale in Colorado and can liquefy coal which is said to have a 200-300 year reserves. Here in Ohio our supposed “dry” wells are now full again…no recent Dino’s that we know of. We are desperately in need a “real” energy policy. Big Oil has rigged the system…They own the hole, oil, distribution, processing and retail…and they own the Green Peace anti-oil groups, Geological-Peak Oil types and Politicians…what a great system and way to keep us from getting the oil in our own back yard and charges whatever they damn well feel. I ran into a Kerr Oil exec 2- years ago and asked what the real price of gas was, he laughed and said .38-.45 cents and laughed some more stating that people really knew how bad we were screwing them we’d be dead!

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  21. The abiotic origin of oil has been proven. Only oil company shills say otherwise.

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  22. You are uneducated, so sure you are going to throw around silly statements like that. You guys will believe anything, but the proof is in the pudding, and the pudding is going to be running out. All the really easily obtainable oil has already been found and is being used.

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