[extropy-chat] Debate on Peak Oil

[Mike Lorrey]

--- Hal Finney <hal at finney.org> wrote:
> Dustin Wish writes:
> > I had read an article about new exploration in the Gulf of Mexico
> using new
> > technology, which they said shows a HUGE oil reserve almost twice
> the amount
> > of oil as has been used up till today. That would be a turn around
> from the
> > cheap oil economic times we have lived in.
> 
> On the other hand, this news from a Peak Oil site is discouraging for
> Gulf of Mexico oil development:
> http://www.energybulletin.net/5438.html
> 
> "According to a new study published on Sunday by state oil monopoly
> Petroleos Mexicanos, the potential for oil exploration in the Gulf of
> Mexico has been greatly overestimated.
> 
> "Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, revealed that terrain in waters
> deeper
> than 3,000 meters in the Gulf of Mexico an area known as the Abyssal
> Plain were 'not suitable for oil exploration.' The statement
> represents
> a serious setback for future drilling in the area, and, according to
> petroleum analysts, jeopardizes any possible collaborations with
> foreign
> investors.
> ...
> "Pemex had initially earmarked a possible 54 billion barrels of oil
> that could be drilled from the area. With that figure now cut in
> half, Pérez Cruz says, exploration becomes economically unviable"
> 
> This is why I say that Peak Oil sites provide biased news.  They
> search
> the press for all the bad things, but won't reprint good news (that
> is, news which goes against their theories). 

Especially when you consider that Pemex is the only oil company in the
world that has never turned a profit. When you have a company
management that could teach the saudis a thing or two about graft and
nepotism, it isn't hard to wonder why they are now trying to downplay expectations.

Mike Lorrey
Vice-Chair, 2nd District, Libertarian Party of NH
"Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom.
It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves."
                                      -William Pitt (1759-1806) 
Blog: http://intlib.blogspot.com

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around 
http://mail.yahoo.com