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More Peak Oil news


Russia's oil production has peaked and is stagnating, according to one of the Russian Federation's most respected oil executives, the energy minister, and the Financial Times. The Association for the Study of Peak Oil has the story and the technical explanations here.

Meanwhile, Kuwait's Bhagrum oilfield has peaked. The world's second largest oilfield is exhausted. You can read the story here.

Saudi Arabian sources have taken to saying that they have 'miraculously' bucked the idea of peak oil in the Ghawar field. When pressed, however, they point constantly to productive capacity--the number of rigs--and not to production--the amount of oil.

Meanwhile, OPEC has blamed speculators and issued a doublespeak press release in which prices are 'volatile' but the market is 'stable'. They contradict the first part with price data on their own website. There is also substantial evidence that world production figures are being massaged. In 2004, for example, when Shell admitted it had inflated its reserve figures for years, industry sources noted that they would never reveal the truth given the market panic that would result.

Way back then, even Al-Jazeera noticed.

Well, the truth seems to be slipping out. There are fields that have not peaked on any estimation; Iran and Iraq, Venezuela, Nigeria and Libya. Yet no-one knows the true state of things. Iran's government, via the Teheran Times, pointed out yesterday that it would be happy with oil prices well above $115 per barrel. Iraq's oil production seems to be enough for 158 years; but only if the rest of the world's production is maintained at current levels.

Meanwhile, demand keeps on rising. Join the dots with the edible crayon from the maximum security home, my faithful reader. Even if oil falls back because of a recession, how long do we have left?

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