Peak Oil

Fears emerge over Russia’s oil output
By Carola Hoyos and Javier Blas in London
Published: April 14 2008 22:10 | Last updated: April 14 2008 22:10
Russian oil production has peaked and may never return to current levels, one of the country’s top energy executives has warned, fuelling concerns that the world’s biggest oil producers cannot keep up with rampant Asian demand.

The warning comes as crude oil prices are trading near their record high of $112 a barrel, stoking inflation in many countries.

Leonid Fedun, the 52-year-old vice-president of Lukoil, Russia’s largest independent oil company, told the Financial Times he believed last year’s Russian oil production of about 10m barrels a day was the highest he would see “in his lifetime”. Russia is the world’s second biggest oil producer.

Mr Fedun compared Russia with the North Sea and Mexico, where oil production is declining dramatically, saying that in the oil-rich region of western Siberia, the mainstay of Russian output, “the period of intense oil production [growth] is over”.

The Russian government has so far admitted that production growth has stagnated, but has shied away from admitting that post-Soviet output has peaked.

Viktor Khristenko, Russia’s energy minister who is pushing for tax cuts that could stimulate investment, said last week: “The output level we have today is a plateau, stagnation.”

Russia was until recently considered as the most promising oil region outside the Middle East. Its rapid output growth in the early 2000s helped to meet booming Chinese demand and limited the rise in oil prices.

The trend, however, has turned, with supply dropping below year-ago levels for the first time this decade, according to the International Energy Agency, the energy watchdog.

Oil futures on Monday rose to $111.79 a barrel, just below last week’s record of $112.21 a barrel.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008

 

If "Peak Oil" sentiment becomes hysterical like it was in ~June-2006, it'll be a great long-term sell signal. Stay tuned.

 

peak oil is such a scam

every year the eco fraudsters keep shifting the peak rightward.

 

if russia cant increase production oil is going to the moon

 

This is for the Peak Oil alarmists (pekelo, etc.)

Fire In The Ice: Gas Hydrate Project Could Unlock Vast Energy Resource In Alaska

ScienceDaily.com — Drilling is complete on an Alaskan North Slope well, cofunded by the Department of Energy, that could prove to be an important milestone in assessing America's largest potential fossil energy resource: gas hydrate.

Gas hydrate is an ice-like solid that results from the trapping of methane molecules - the main component of natural gas - within a lattice-like cage of water molecules. Dubbed the "ice that burns," this substance releases gaseous methane when it melts.

The size of the global gas hydrate resource is staggering, holding more ultimate energy potential than all other fossil fuels combined, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). In the United States, where gas hydrate occurs beneath the permafrost of Alaska's arctic north and below the seabed offshore, the volume of this resource is massive. USGS estimates that the Nation's gas hydrate deposits contain 200,000 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of natural gas. Compare this with a known recoverable natural gas resource of approximately 1,500 Tcf. If just one percent of the gas hydrate resource could be rendered producible, our Nation's natural gas resource base would more than double.

 

Our problem is actually not a true Peak Oil. Huge reserves are there but the problem is that Russia, Nigeria, Mexico, etc.'s governments are so nationalistic and/or corrupt that they are not willing to get the outside help they need to extract it. This creates an artifical Peak Oil situation that may not last forever (esp. when Brazil comes on line).

But, for now, trade and invest accordingly...

 

Not a ton we have ever agree'd on..but here is one. I think there is going to be a peak in oil at some time, but we have a ton of places we could be getting it from and are not utilizing much, if at all.

 

Peak Oil IS a total scam.

If you've been fortunate to have profited from the hysteria spread by peak oil shills, count yourself as fortunate.

The government is going to crush crude oil - the economic fortunes of hundreds of thousands of businesses and hundreds of millions of Americans depends on it.

 

That worked well, are you still short?

5yr

 

Not according to Harward educated twice elected president of the USA! :

http://www.thenational.ae/article/20080518/BUSINESS/649259864/-1/NEWS

“The rising price of oil has brought great wealth to some in this region,” Mr Bush said. “But the supply of oil is limited and nations like mine are aggressively developing alternatives to oil.”