One Dollar Gas, revisited

[Bob Hubbard]

I found this while digging around on some politics sites. It's an interesting read and makes some good and some questionable points. I'm curious on others thoughts.


Original at http://www.ncc-1776.org/tle2006/tle383-20060903-08.html

An excerpt:

"Eugene Island is an underwater mountain located about 80 miles off the coast of Louisiana in the Gulf of Mexico. In 1973 oil was struck and off-shore platform Eugene 330 erected. The field began production at 15,000 barrels a day, then gradually fell off, as is normal, to 4,000 barrels a day in 1989, Then came the surprise; it reversed itself and increased production to 13,000 barrels a day. Probable reserves have been increased to 400 million barrels from 60 million. The field appears to be filling from below and the crude coming up today is from a geological age different from the original crude, which leads to the speculation that the world has limitless supplies of petroleum. . .



"Similar occurrences have been seen at other Gulf Of Mexico fields, at the Cook Inlet oil field, at oil fields in Uzbekistan, and it is possible this accounts for the longevity of the Saudi Arabian fields where few new finds have been made, yet reserves have doubled while the fields have been exploited mercilessly for 50 years."



None of this should be very surprising. There have been clues to the non-biological origin of petroleum scattered along the way for at least a couple of hundred years. The composition of the outer planets—the so-called "gas giants"—should have been a dead giveaway. Their atmospheres contain all the ingredients, and some astronomers have even speculated that perhaps it rains petroleum on Jupiter and Saturn.

 

[Archangel M]

I dont really know about the whole "peak oil" theory or all the facts. What I do believe is that the current oil situation is about money, market speculation and politics, not availability.