Few listen to warnings,however last year my family and I visited your country to listen to Matt Simmons talk [twilight in the desert fame]there was standing room only, his words went along the lines....
In 1979 Aramco's American owners said that Saudi Arabia had "proven reserves" of 110bb of oil.There have been no major new discoveries in the middle east since then.
So why do the Saudi's insist that they have 260bb?.
One reason that you pointed out is that they want to discourage "non Opec" nations from looking for more oil,or switching to alternatives.
The other reason is that they tell big porkers,everyone in OPEC that is.In the 1980's OPEC's claim of total reserves magically leaped from 353 to 643bb without a single discovery.
Opec had to limit how much oil each member could sell because prices were to low [like now].The quotas were based on each members oil reserves,so it paid for OPEC to "claim" the biggest reserves they could..and that's what they did.
"ALL" OPEC members kept their reserve estimates the same year after year [as if no oil was being pumped out and sold].They claim to have a bottomless well.
One telling sign that all is not well in Disney land is that engineers now have to pump around 7mb of seawater per day just into the Ghawar field alone to maintain production,this process is not sustainable in fact it's destroying the field.
As previously stated, Americans once owned and operated Aramco that ran the Saudi oil fields,but in 1979 the Saudi's kicked them out and what the oil industry is saying now is that Arab oil will drop dramatically and keep going down for good.
The only way most "experts" try to figure out how much oil the Saudi's sell is by monitoring tanker traffic in and out of the world's ports.
The general feeling in that room was later reflected by the media statements....
Shell...the world finds 1 [one] barrel of oil for every 4[four] consumed,our estimation is that after 2015 supplies of oil and gas will no longer keep up with demand.
Chevron...one thing is clear:The era of easy oil is over..what we do next will determine how well we meet the energy needs of the entire world,in this century and beyond
President of Toyota...our view is that oil production has peaked.We need to develop power trains for "alternative" energy sources [no mention of electricity.]
Another concern at the seminar was that 63% of the worlds natural gas reserves are under control of Russia,Iran,Qatar,and Saudi Arabia.These countries are developing a Natural Gas Cartel that will equal OPEC.
Perhaps we need to ask ourselves why the oil majors have been buying back their own shares en mass since 2000 and moving in quietly with coal companies
Cougars role in all this..there are many people who run around the world trying to ban activities that make civilization possible.However the coal revolution is here,its going to be clean and its going to be liquid and its going to cause a shift in world power and nothing will change that till Nuclear meets its destiny.
Men such as Len Walker who put their testicles on the line for what they know is right and proper for this country's future energy needs have to be encouraged with all the support this nation can give them,if not then the future could be bleak indeed.
[A drop of ink can make a million think.]
HM.
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CXY Price at posting:
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