“Peak oil”, where art thou?

Posted on October 15, 2013 by KG

$20 trillion shale oil find surrounding Coober Pedy ‘can fuel Australia’

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19 Responses to “Peak oil”, where art thou?

  1. ZenTiger says:
    October 15, 2013 at 05:26

    Exactly. The scare mongers have run behind the global warming blanket. After a noted Climate Change (oops, no longer warming) scientist predicting the end of snow in Britain 2000, and being spectacularly wrong, I see they are careful now to keep the doom and gloom messages out at least 30 years.

    They are counting on the fact that they will have spent all the money they raked in on the interview and book circuit, and be too old to hang for their fortune-telling.

  2. KG says:
    October 15, 2013 at 05:32

    Heh! Exactly, Zen. I see this morning on our weather site they’re predicting more “drought and flooding rains” (irony–that phrase comes from a poem of about a hundred years ago, describing Australia as “a land of drought and flooding rains”) and quoting a scientist as saying more studies are needed.
    Which means more taxpayer funding for their gravy train…..

  3. Michael in Nelson says:
    October 15, 2013 at 17:46

    And the US is set to become the world leader in oil and gas production because of fracking. What is with the idiots in Britain that are protesting fracking there?

    So Coober Pedy is the Australian North Dakota but without the cold and snow.http://falfn.com/CrusaderRabbit/wp-content/plugins/wp-monalisa/icons/wpml_good.gif

    • KG says:
      October 15, 2013 at 18:55

      Yep. Heat, dust and flies instead, Michael. Freezing nights but dry, sunny days in winter.

    • The Gantt Guy says:
      October 16, 2013 at 04:23

      “What is with the idiots in Britain that are protesting fracking there?”

      Same as with the idiots in Australia protesting it there, Michael. And the idiots in NZ.

      Fracking represents the end of their “peak oil” lie. It is the end of their utopian windmill- and solar-panel-driven genocide of humans and endangered birds.

      It also represents the wonder, the sheer miracle, of the human mind and what it’s capable of accomplishing.

      So, of course they hate it.

      • KG says:
        October 16, 2013 at 05:57

        “It also represents the wonder, the sheer miracle, of the human mind and what it’s capable of accomplishing.”
        http://falfn.com/CrusaderRabbit/wp-content/plugins/wp-monalisa/icons/wpml_good.gif Damn right.

  4. Darin says:
    October 15, 2013 at 23:14

    Look at the track record of these environuts-
    They were wrong about Prudhoe Bay
    Wrong about the Alaskan Pipeline
    Wrong about Gulf of Mexico oil
    Wrong about the Canadian Tar sands
    Wrong about global warming/climate change
    Wrong about DDT
    Wrong about Fracing
    And wrong about Peak oil.
    They have never been right,but so many people believe their lies because they deal in fear.

  5. Rich says:
    October 16, 2013 at 14:52

    I think most here have conflated Peak Oil with global warming. They are two separate issues. I am with you on global warming/climate change, its a complete hoax designed to control and extort from the people. However, peak oil is a different story. Its not that we are running out of oil, its that we are running out of CHEAP oil. All of the easy to get to (read as inexpensive) oil is long gone. What we have left is oil that is only profitable over $100 a barrel. Why is it that people forget that only four years ago the average price of gas in the US was about $2 a gallon and oil was around $50 a barrel?
    As for fracking look at the depletion rates on those wells. After two years there is a reduction of 40%-60%, sometime higher. Not to mention the billions of gallons of diesel fuel and other unknown chemicals(unknown because they won’t tell us) that they pump into the ground water to get the ground to frack. It seems to me that poisoning the ground water is a VERY bad idea.

  6. KG says:
    October 16, 2013 at 15:06

    “I think most here have conflated Peak Oil with global warming.”
    No, we have not.
    To do so would be the act of a moron, and readers here are uniformly well-informed and intelligent.
    We do, however, see dishonest environmental scare tactics applied across a whole range of scientific disciplines.
    Your comment is nothing more than a collection of superficial environut slogans – and as such it isn’t worth the effort and bandwidth of rebuttal.

  7. KG says:
    October 16, 2013 at 15:09

    Oh, and by the way–one commenter here (who is also a friend of mine and a man of enormous personal integrity) is involved in the drilling industry – has been for many years – and he also holds anti-fracking campaigners in utter contempt for the lies and pseudo-science they peddle.

  8. Rich says:
    October 17, 2013 at 00:41

    Well at least your reasonable. Read the comments. your readers cannot separate the two.

    I live in North Dakota and have many, many friends in the fields. It is from them that I hear about all the chemicals they use to create pressure. The companies themselves admit to the diesel and chemicals in open testimony.

    “Your comment is nothing more than a collection of superficial environut slogans”
    Did you even read my comment?

    “I am with you on global warming/climate change, its a complete hoax designed to control and extort from the people”

    • The Gantt Guy says:
      October 17, 2013 at 05:15

      I suspect you’re missing the point. The whole point is that for several years, greenies, commies and assorted other miscreants who hate humanity have been running around blathering about “peak oil”, screaming that THE OIL IS RUNNING OUT!!!!!

      In fact, there is no evidence that oil is running out. Yes, the stuff in the M.E. which is found simply by scraping away a few centimetres of sand may not last too many more generations (and I think we’re all waiting with baited breath what happens when the pipeline of cash from oil to jihad stops flowing). But the fact is, there is a vast, untapped wealth of oil available if man applies his genius to getting it. Fracking might be a more expensive extraction method than scraping away a few centimetres of Saudi sand, but as the methodology and technology improves, it will become cheaper and easier to extract.

      Fracking may not be the answer, long term. But it is clearly a cost-effective solution for today. As is exploiting Canada’s oil sands. And Australia’s massive natural gas reserves. Fracking is technology which could lead to the US (and Aus, and Britain, and NZ) being held hostage to regimes which seek our destruction. And that is well worth the investment.

      Others will be far better-informed than I, but your comment that “…poisoning the ground water is a VERY bad idea.” seems to be nothing more than regurgitated propaganda of the type spewed out by the EPA and the Sound-and-Vision Wing of the Democrat Party MSM. It’s hard to find real information on the topic, since the Sound-and-Vision Wing of the Democrat Party MSM have decided FRACKING=BAD, but I haven’t seen any credible publications which offer up proof that ground water is being poisoned on any kind of scale.

      You also said “Its not that we are running out of oil, its that we are running out of CHEAP oil. All of the easy to get to (read as inexpensive) oil is long gone. What we have left is oil that is only profitable over $100 a barrel. Why is it that people forget that only four years ago the average price of gas in the US was about $2 a gallon and oil was around $50 a barrel?”

      So with that comment, you’ve articulated the problem. If not fracking, what’s your solution?

      • The Gantt Guy says:
        October 18, 2013 at 02:33

        PROOF-READ BEFORE POSTING, IDIOT!!!

        Of course, what I meant above was:

        “Fracking is technology which could lead to the end of US (and Aus, and Britain, and NZ) being held hostage to regimes which seek our destruction. And that is well worth the investment.”

  9. Rich says:
    October 17, 2013 at 13:42

    TGG Thanks for the excellent reply.

    Let me start by saying that I am in no way associated with either Democrats or Republicans. I am dedicated III% Libertarian. I have not watched MSM (other than for entertainment value while traveling) or TV for almost five years. I do not believe in global warming or man made climate change. I despise wall street and central banking. That should clear up most of my bona fides.

    I agree that that many people have been screaming (incorrectly) about oil running out. There are others that believe its cheap oil that is running out. I am not well versed enough to KNOW that fracking will destroy/damage ground water. Maybe I should have left my comment at: It seems like a bad idea to put large unspecified quantities of known toxic substances anywhere near the water table . I have watched several of the hearings before congress on the subject. There was not one person from the oil companies that would be open and clear about what exactly they were doing or what chemicals they were using or in what quantity. I also know that its the oil companies that pay for most, if not all, of the impact studies. I also know that just about everybody that works for the government in any type of regulatory capacity either has worked for a mega-corp or goes to work for them immediately after leaving public service. I also know that corporations first and only obligation is to their shareholders. Do you trust these guys to do what is best for everyone or what is best for their bottom line? I think we both know the answer is the bottom line so how far can we really trust them. The answer is we can’t.

    I am just a simple country boy, I can’t solve the worlds problems. However, I do have a few ideas. First and foremost we need to reduce our energy consumption dramatically. The best way to do this is to go back to local production and smaller communities. Why does our food have to be transported 2000 miles? Why is it illegal for me to sell my goat milk to my neighbor. Why can’t I butcher my cattle and sell locally? Why do people to travel up to four hours to commute to and from work. Why are we using semi-trucks to transport goods when trains can do it for pennies on the dollar? Instead of trying to find more and more energy why can’t we realize we live in a closed system and use what we have more effectively? I am not sure I answered your question but this rabbit hole goes pretty deep and this could be a very long conversation as there is quite a bit wrong with the system we have today.

    • The Gantt Guy says:
      October 18, 2013 at 02:43

      Rich, there’s a hell of a lot in your comment above with which I completely agree.

      About the only thing I disagree on is your implication that the profit motive is anything other than a good motive. A corporation’s first duty is to its shareholders, and that is as it should be. The trouble comes when those with the profit motive get near a government with a limitless apetite for control. And the only reason that can happen is because generations of Americans have allowed the government to grow ever-larger, to encroach further and further into their lives, to assert more and more control over them. And that, I think answers all of the questions in your excellent final paragraph:

      “Why does our food have to be transported 2000 miles? Why is it illegal for me to sell my goat milk to my neighbor. Why can’t I butcher my cattle and sell locally? Why do people to travel up to four hours to commute to and from work. Why are we using semi-trucks to transport goods when trains can do it for pennies on the dollar?”
      Simple answer: GOVERNMENT. In a genuine free market, every single one of those “can’t” questions above wouldn’t exist. But you have the Dept of Agrivulture ( :mrgreen: ), EPA, Dept of Transport and every other petty tyrant trying to STOP you from earning your living. Where is the Constitutional authority for any of those “cant’s”?

      • Rich says:
        October 20, 2013 at 01:47

        Making a profit is a good motive. It is one of the things that drives us forward as a species. Making decisions that you know will/may harm others so you can make a profit is is disgusting. What I was saying was the the big corps. do not care if they hurt or damage people or property in order to make their profit. They will do whatever it takes to make profit. Which leads me to the other part of your post.

        You are blaming government for many of our troubles and woes. I agree completely. But how did all this happen? Here is an example. CAFE standards. Most of these regulations came from the automobile manufactures themselves. Why? to shut down the competition. The big manufacturers can absorb the cost of complying through scale. New startups have no chance. This is just about everywhere in our economy. Including food production, finance, insurance, construction, medical, pharmaceuticals and the list goes on.

        I am not saying this is what has caused all of our problems, far from it. We have so many problems from so may different causes there is no way we can point to one thing in particular with one possible exception. Central banking and uncontrolled fractional reserve lending. This, to me, is the core of most of our problems. When you allow a group of people to create currency out of thin air and call it money, then distribute the currency to the population as a debt that can NEVER truly be repaid you get what we have today.

        Here is one of the best videos describing this process that I have found. Please let me know what you think.

        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFDe5kUUyT0

  10. Darin says:
    October 17, 2013 at 15:38

    Rich,we do live in a closed system,the oil will runout one day.But that day won’t come in the next decade or even the next century.There are proven reserves under the floor of the GOM,in shallow water that the feds have kept off limits.Same goes for the eastern and western continental shelf.Fact is we have not touched 2/3 of the oil in the lower 48 and we haven’t even mentioned the North Slope.In the Amazon basin lay two fields that have the potential to be larger strikes than the largest formations in the ME and that oil and gas is near the surface.

    Now,about that price.Much of it is driven by speculation disconnected from reality.In the Bakken formation and the Canadian Tar sands for example those producers can turn a profit at anything over $40/barrel.What does that mean?Well for starters that means the cost of production and transportation are far less than $100/barrel.

    Those inflated prices are driven by fear of supply disruption which has never happened since WWII.The current price is driven by that factor and not anything related to peak oil.In the US our largest supplier of imported oil is Canada,number two is Saudi and number three Mexico.
    http://www.eia.gov/pub/oil_gas/petroleum/data_publications/company_level_imports/current/import.html

    Keep in mind that OPEC,makes up 8% of our supply and a good portion of that comes from Venezuela.We don’t need to be energy independant,we just need to be rid of OPEC.Frankly I would much rather buy oil from our Canadian and Mexican brothers and sisters than I had the ME,and we could,if we had a pipeline to deliever the oil to market,gee,I wonder who is holding that up and for what purpose? :roll:

    • Rich says:
      October 20, 2013 at 02:01

      I agree with most of what you said except “The current price is driven by that factor and not anything related to peak oil.”

      If it costs more to produce because we have already picked the low hanging fruit then the final price will have to increase proportionally to the cost of extraction.

      Oilfields Estimated Production
      /source Costs ($ 2008)
      Mideast/N.Africa oilfields 6 – 28
      Other conventional oilfields 6 – 39
      CO2 enhanced oil recovery 30 – 80
      Deep/ultra-deep-water oilfields 32 – 65
      Enhanced oil recovery 32 – 82
      Arctic oilfields 32 – 100
      Heavy oil/bitumen 32 – 68
      Oil shales 52 – 113
      Gas to liquids 38 – 113
      Coal to liquids 60 – 113

      Source: International Energy Agency World Energy Outlook 2008

      (Compiled by Martina Fuchs, Christopher Johnson, Karen Norton,
      Joe Brock and Barbara Lewis, Editing by James Jukwey)

      Average price of oil per barrel
      http://www.wtrg.com/prices.htm

      You blame speculators and fear for the price increase. Granted these do have an impact on the price. But what about increase in demand? There are many nations whose demand for energy has increase multifold over the last decade, China being first on the list.

      http://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapoza/2013/08/25/within-four-years-china-to-consume-more-oil-than-u-s/

      As with most things there is never a single reason things are the way they are.