Oil exploration

Last week I blogged that:

"I often read that the world is now past the point of "peak oil", that being the point when when the maximum rate of global petroleum production is reached, after which the rate of production enters its terminal decline.

What we hear less about are the enormous reserves of oil that lie ready to be extracted but that are off-limits for dubious environmental reasons. This article from CNS News has some interesting facts:

"The U.S. government knows where it can get its hands on more untapped petroleum than exists in the proven reserves of Iran or Iraq, which have 136 billion barrels and 115 billion barrels, respectively.

This unexploited stock of crude is greater than what the U.S. Energy Information Administration reports is in the proven reserves of Russia (60 billion barrels), Libya (41.5 billion barrels) and Nigeria (36.2 billion barrels) combined.

It is more than Hugo Chavez's Venezuela has (80 billion barrels). It is more than is now known to sit beneath the waters and sands of Kuwait (101.5 billion barrels) or the United Arab Emirates (97.6 billion barrels)...."

Today I hear that John McCain called for an end to the long imposed ban on offshore oil production in the USA. Of course Barack Obama responded by accusing him of betraying his previous promises on the environment.

John McCain said that:

"Energy conservation is no longer just a moral luxury or a personal virtue"

Barack Obama responded that plans to allow offshore drilling were, like Mr McCain’s "gas tax gimmick", a policy that would offer limited benefits to drivers because no oil would be produced for at least a decade and, even then, "the effect on prices would be negligible".


I say (again) "You might almost believe that some people would rather have the Western World reliant on dodgy countries in the Middle East than have a ready supply of home produced oil. Now why would that be the case?"