There is an article that was on CNN.com that I just finished reading, and it does nothing but prove our point at the need to find a cure for the oil desire. This article is about Matt Simmons and his theory of Oil Peaking. I am going to highlight a little of the article, but I would like to task anyone with reading this article. It can be found HERE. We as a world, we as Americans need to find an answer.
“The soaring price of crude – it has risen from below $20 a barrel in 2002 to as high as $147 earlier this year – has helped thrust Simmons further into the spotlight. He was one of the main voices, for instance, in the recent oil-shock documentary “Crude Awakening,” and his book has now sold more than 100,000 copies. His willingness to make bold predictions about how high crude may go has made him an A-list guest for cable TV news programs and a go-to source for newspaper reporters covering oil and gas. In 2005, when oil was $58 a barrel, he predicted it would be at or above $100 within a few years. Now he sees it climbing to $200, $300, or higher. “There really is no roof on oil prices at this point,” he says.”
“In his typically analytical fashion, Simmons went hunting for data. He found it in the form of hundreds of technical papers submitted by Saudi oil geologists to the Society of Petroleum Engineers over the past 50 years. Simmons spent the month of August 2003 sitting on his porch in Maine and grinding his way through the minutiae of technical accounts of, for instance, reservoir pressure and water-cut percentages, trying to piece together the challenges that the Saudi geologists had encountered in managing their precious oilfields. In the end, his conclusion was clear. “I finished reading the last paper on a Sunday afternoon,” says Simmons, “and I sat back and I thought, Holy crap, this is unbelievable. I’ve just discovered the biggest energy illusion ever in the world. We’re in big trouble. I’m going to write a book.”
“if demand goes up but supply doesn’t, prices are apt to go through the roof”
“And while we’re not going to run out of it anytime soon, the era of easy oil is over, and the world is about to enter a period of convulsive change. (Hint: Learn to garden, and buy some comfortable walking shoes.)”
L.J.
