There is a considerable volume of oil in the Athabasca region and production has been increasing over the years. But how realistic is it to assume that oil sands oil will provide a significant portion of future U.S. oil needs?
Only a true contrarian can worry about high oil prices, shortages and global economic shockwaves when the price of oil has fallen from $147 to under $40 per barrel in less than six months and gasoline is now less than $2 a gallon! I should be singing “Happy (driving) days are here again,” but I’m not. The facts speak otherwise, and the time for preparation and mitigation is growing short.
ussia’s Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that the world financial crisis and rising costs mean the price of natural gas is going to rise.
In Greek mythology, the enchanting songs of the Sirens lured unwary sailors to shipwreck and death. Today’s Sirens are the roadside signs singing sweetly, “Cheap gas! Cheap gas! Drink deeply and be at ease, weary traveller!”
U.S. crude prices dropped more than 9 percent to $36 a barrel Thursday as slumping demand and swelling U.S. inventories offset OPEC’s record supply cut agreement.
The slowdown in production has oil companies worried about what will happen when the global economy recovers. Royal Dutch Shell vice president Marvin Odum warned, “We’re in remission right now,” he said, but when oil demand rebounds, “the energy challenge will come back with a vengeance.”
The IEA is very constrained in what it can say - by the demands of its constituent governments - so you have to read between the lines. We believe that peak oil will come about in 2013 at the latest but the real concern from the IEA is the adjustment of production figures,”
http://bloomberg.com
By Tara Patel
Dec. 10 (Bloomberg) — A further decline in global oil prices may delay or halt investment in exploration and production projects, according to Fatih Birol, chief economist of the International Energy Agency.
“If prices were to go lower, investments could be delayed or canceled and we would pay the cost in the future,” Birol [...]
There is a growing consensus among those who follow such things, that the new high of world oil production (87.9 million barrels a day) reached last July is likely to go down in history as the all-time peak.
After throwing a wrench into Canada’s oil sands growth and messing up Alberta’s budget surplus, slumping oil prices are beginning to bite into the government budgets of many OPEC members, Tristone Capital Inc. said in a report.