You won’t hear this talked about on TV:
The hoax of Peak Oil – namely the argument that the oil production has hit the point where more than half all reserves have been used and the world is on the downslope of oil at cheap price and abundant quantity – has enabled this costly fraud to continue since the invasion of Iraq in 2003 with the help of key banks, oil traders and big oil majors. Washington is trying to shift blame, as always, to Arab OPEC producers. The problem is not a lack of crude oil supply. In fact the world is in over-supply now. Yet the price climbs relentlessly higher. Why? The answer lies in what are clearly deliberate US government policies that permit the unbridled oil price manipulations.
(link)
In my gut, I think there’s a decent amount of truth to this. You do see it occasionally mentioned in MSM, but it’s rare. I was watching CNN last night for the PR election/Dem rules committee stuff, and at about 1am my time, they switched to a financial show where they talked about this for 3-5 minutes. But um…at 1am.
How do you think this will unwind? CAN it unwind? Demand isn’t that elastic, so the supply/demand relationship that should eventually punish the speculators doesn’t work all that well. It’ll be interesting to see what happens, though.
The world has always been held hostage by the price of oil, and the US government has always been the primary manipulator of the price of oil. The US wants the world to feel “oil starved” because it is one of the last tools it has left to hold power over the world economy. Once this bubble bursts, the US will have lost means of controlling the world and it’s own people. Just how much longer do they think the other world leaders will allow them to continue to jack up the price? At some point very soon it will no longer be financially viable to depend on burning oil at this price and when the value of oil is changed from US dollars to Euro (and we know that’s going to happen soon too) then big changes will abound. I doubt prices will fall dramatically but they may return to the realms of sanity, and then the US will have to start paying for all of the financial sins they have racked up in the last 10 years.
US/EU demand dropping? Bollocks. How about some evidence? US demand has climbed 28% between 1981 and 2007, for instance, and since the turn of the century has kept rising.
Don’t mix the two theories up. Peak Oil and artificial high pricing can both exist. I’ve no doubt that the current price hike has little to do with Peak Oil, which hasn’t kicked in yet. Read the comments associated with the article to get a clearer picture.
Peak Oil is obvious, it’s just a matter of how long the time span is, 20 years, 40 years, 100 years, 200 years. Crude oil exists only in unique circumstances, so there is a finite amount on the earth. Of course we’re finding new oil fields, but how many oil fields have run dry over the last 50 years? Are we finding enough new oil, relative to demand?
Oil will exist well beyond “Peak Oil” but can we access and refine it economically? In the meantime, games are being played with the oil price and declaring reserves, in the short term. In the long term, oil price will go up as demand outstrips supply.
what everyone must understand is that there is no conspiracy here. oil companies only pump the oil that will give it maximum profits, refineries will only build those that give them greatest p[rofits, hedge funds only invest in futures that give them max profits. “peak oil” is defined by price. you can make diesel from coal as both the nazis and the south africans have. at $130us per barrel of crude these technologies become more than economical as do tar sands, cng and lng.{aus sells most of its north west shelf gas to china dead cheap} as soon as someone can exceed the profits of a liquid hydrocarbon that almost leaks from the ground trust me they will. the whole sad fact is i hear everyone whinge that unleaded has increased by 25% in 12 months and yet they are happy their 3 bedroom 1 bath 2 car has increased in “value” by 5% or in some places up to 10% yearly. economics 101 anyone?
oh and rudd has cut csiro’s budget!! smashing the family china to save dishwashing!!! at the same time he wants to introduce a carbon tax! well, seems we voted in a beauracrat who has no science versus a wanker who had even less. thanks for your time
I have heard so many opinions of whether oil is actually drying up or not. On one hand it would be nice because we would have to find an alternative fuel and hopefully it would environmentally friendly. But maybe the prices are high because the oil companies all know we need it and they are just squeezing every last penny they can get out of us. To tell you the truth the only people who really know the truth are probably the oil companies. But this article I was reading called The U.S. Oil Supply – A Look at Our Future Needs and its by a geologist and investment analyst who graduate from Harvard who is commenting on the topic. I have more faith in this report because it is by a very well educated person in the field of geologist and most other claims don’t have any sources. I tend to think a geologist has more clout that just a news report that never say where their information in from.
Oil is on its way out. My guess is there is a new technology that will replace it. This is the only possible answer. Magnets, air cars and the like.