Wednesday, September 2, 2015

Great Article On America's Super-Abundance Of Oil -- Investor's Business Daily -- September 2, 2015

This article is a keeper; one that needs to be archived. This should put the final nail in Mr M King Hubbert's coffin. From wiki:
Hubbert's Peak was thought to have been achieved in the United States contiguous 48 states (that is, excluding Alaska) in the early 1970s. Oil production peaked at 10,200,000 barrels per day (1,620,000 m3/d) and then declined for several years since.
Yet, recent advances in extraction technology and optimistic production forecasts has led to widespread skepticism of Hubbert's theory.  However, the 1970s peak has not been reached, despite assertions to the contrary.
I wonder if wiki will ever have to update that entry.

Oil production peaked at 10,200,000 barrels per day (1,620,000 m3/d) and then declined for several years since. According to this link at Investor's Business Daily,
Last month the Energy Department reported that the U.S. hit an energy milestone: We produced 9.52 million barrels a day. That was very close to the highest output level in recorded history. So much for running out.
Flashbacks:
  • Flashback, 2011: "The United States of America cannot afford to bet our long-term prosperity, our long-term security on a resource that will eventually run out, and even before it runs out will get more and more expensive to extract from the ground." -- President Barack Obama.
  • Flashback, 1980: Jimmy Carter declared that by 2000 we'd be nearly out of oil — running on empty.
  • Flashback to the era of The Great Gatsby, before WWI: Famously in the 1920s, the Interior Department projected less than a few decades' worth of recoverable oil in the country.
There's so much oil, the price of oil has plummeted below $40, and adjusted for inflation ... well, it's pretty cheap.

Anyway, enough of that. You get the picture.

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Couscous

With that as backdrop, apparently President Obama, a lame duck president, will be meeting with the new king of Saudi Arabia sometime this week or next. I hope he enjoys couscous because that's probably the best he will get out of the meeting.

Saudis have already met with Putin, last July, in Moscow. The chess game continues.
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Pish-Posh

Unfettered, the Bakken was projected to produce 2 million bopd sometime later this year or next. Production would have gone on through 2100 A.D. Now at 1 million bopd, the reservoir will last that much longer, but most likely Bakken production will flatline at 750,000 bopd if the Saudis maintain their production. (I doubt they will, but with all the other oil being produced, my hunch is that Bakken will plateau at 750,000 bopd before it's all over.)

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