Peak Oil Report: Half of Kuwait Oil Reserves Disappear
by Michael Graham Richard, Gatineau, Canada on 01.21.06
Yesterday, it was reported that the oil reserves of Kuwait are only half what was previously thought (but how do we know that the new figure is accurate?). "'Petroleum Intelligence Weekly (PIW) learns from sources that Kuwait's actual oil reserves, which are officially stated at around 99 billion barrels, or close to 10 percent of the global total, are a good deal lower, according to internal Kuwaiti records,' the weekly PIW reported on Friday [...] 'Kuwait's remaining proven and non-proven oil reserves are about 48 billion barrels.'" That means world reserves just dropped, as if by magic, by 5%. Many people familiar with the field think that Saudi Arabia is also over-inflating its reserves, so this scenario could happen again. The mainstream media didn't make much noise about this (publishing the item on a Friday is the oldest trick in the book to make sure nobody is paying attention), but it will be interesting to watch the price of oil when the stock exchange markets re-open next week. ::Kuwait oil reserves only half official estimate-PIW, via ::MetaFilter, ::Norwegian Peak Oil?, ::Canadian Oil: At What Price?, ::Peak Natural Gas, ::Grist Interviews Matthew Simmons on Peak Oil, ::CNN Gas gripes, Katrina & More About Oil, ::The Effect Of High Oil Prices On People, ::Portland Peak Oil Group, ::Peak Oil – The Lessons of Y2K, ::See Peak Oil for Yourself
. . . a blessing in disguise. The sooner oil gets expensive, the sooner we'll really start investing in alternative energies, which may be better in the long run but never get off the ground due to undue competition imposed by artificially/ignorantly low oil prices.
Interestingly there have been two recent pieces in the Independent. One on Wednesday about a peak oil conference in London and one on Friday by Jeremy Leggett, who spoke at that conference too.
The Leggett piece, I must warn is long but shocking. He also contends that middle east oil reserves are vastly over estimated. This is largely because OPEC quotas were determined on the basis of reserves so it served everyone to hype their estimates
http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article339928.ece
Quite probably some scary times ahead if the estimates of peak oil occurring in 2008 are anywhere near correct.
Hey, this has 31 diggs right now. Could get frontpage. Digg it!
http://digg.com/science/5_of_World_s_Oil_Reserves_DISAPPEARED_on_Friday
They also think that Saudi Arabia as much less oil than they stated. I hate to see fuel costs go up but that seems to be the only 2X4 between the eyes that gets the general public to care about using less of it.
I think that this could turn out to be one of the most significant stories of the decade. If there is much less oil than we thought, and China and India are just now ramping up their use (as they are) we are headed for major battles over oil. Will it get as far as resource wars? I don't know
Check out this very interesting piece on The Oil Drum; warning...lots of graphs and technical terms but it's good reading.
http://www.theoildrum.com/story/2006/1/20/193723/259