Idle Chatter -- April 28, 2017

It's funny the things that bug me. Yesterday a reader sent me this story which I posted: Saudi Aramco CEO says peak oil demand is a misleading theory. Bloomberg gave a lot of space to this story. The nut of the story: the IEA says oil demand will peak in 2030; the Saudi Aramco CEO says oil demand will continue to grow through 2050. Sometimes it seems I have to be hit over the head with a "2 x 4" to figure this out.

This is not rocket science.

Think about it. The Saudi Aramco CEO is getting ready to go public with his company. Would he launch his IPO telling potential investors that the company will stop growing by 2030 according to IEA as demand for our product goes away? LOL. He is simply "talking his book" when he tells us that demand for his product will continue to grow through 2050.

In hindsight, it's amazing Bloomberg posted such a long article on such a simple story. No one knows how long the demand for crude oil will last, but should it be surprising that Saudi Arabia says demand will continue to grow for decades?

By the way, I think Saudi Arabia is a voice in the wilderness, suggesting that oil demand will continue to grow for decades.

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US Exports Of LNG and Crude Oil

This past week has been incredible: all the stories coming out about US exports of LNG and crude oil. If I get a chance, I will bring these posts together in one spot.

There are two huge stories that will be interesting to watch:
one, Asia, it appears, seems to prefer light oil; US still prefers heavy oil
second, US LNG exports to Europe has to be scaring Russia
This all takes me back to "The Big Story" -- linked at the sidebar at the right -- a post that was first posted about the time the Bakken boom began. At that link, several big stories:

• US energy revolution
• US energy centers of gravity
• natural gas and coal in the post-nuclear world
• Russia: losing dominance in Europe -- wow, that was first posted a year ago, February 26, 2016