As the world rapidly runs out of oil, one place seems to be swimming in the stuff, and no prizes for guessing who that is … Iraq has dramatically increased the official size of its oil reserves after new data suggested that they could exceed Saudi Arabia’s and be the largest in the world.
oil reserves
Congress Votes to Stop Filling Oil Reserve
They must be getting jittery. Fearing a political backlash over rising gasoline prices, US politicians have voted to halt deliveries to the 700 million barrel Strategic Petroleum Reserve. About 700 million barrels of oil are stored in the underground reserve on the Gulf Coast, established after the 1973 Arab oil embargo to protect against supply … Read More
Mexico’s Oil Reforms Get Muted Response from the Majors
A plan to shake up Mexico’s flagging state-run oil sector has met with a muted reaction from the oil majors. The foreign oil companies want Mexico to join the rest of the world in offering risk-sharing joint ventures, especially in the huge deep-sea sector. These joint ventures would enable the companies to claim that they … Read More
Shell Slashes Reserves Estimates (Again!)
Shell has ongoing problems with its oil reserves, with the oil giant once again having to slash its reserve figures from last year by more than half. This takes about 1.3 billion barrels of oil off its books, equivalent to about a year’s production. The company is expected to take at least 200 million barrels … Read More
Fat Profits, But Big Oil is Shrinking
Over the next few days more oil companies will announce obscene profits. But as the headlines are taken by calls for a windfall tax, the real story is one that has been brewing for some time. Big Oil can’t find enough oil. Yesterday, despite making ÂŁ93m a day, Shell did not impressed the markets. The … Read More
Shell Sparks Fears Over Reserves
Maybe the oil industry is running out of reserves faster than it is letting on (see other blog), but Shell is to delay publication of key data about its oil reserves that it would normally have released alongside profits figures being published this week. The decision is said to have disappointed some analysts, who have … Read More
“World Not Running Out of Oil” (but read the small-print)
The world is slowly going mad: we have the Premier of Alberta saying that the ecological downsides of extracting oil sands is a “myth”, yet we all know that oil sands development is the most ecologically destructive process ever invented by the oil industry (see below). We also have the US government saying that the … Read More
Saudis Embark on PR Exercise to Show World They Have Enough Oil
Slowly but surely the unthinkable is becoming thinkable. The days of “peak” are fast approaching, and such is the shortage of new areas coming on stream that there is a “production ceiling” to the amount of oil that can be pumped per day to an ever thirsty world. Take the Wall Street Journal this morning. … Read More
Brazil Considers Joining OPEC After “Monstrous” Find
Brazil is to consider joining OPEC after it has gauged the impact on its oil exports from its newly discovered giant offshore Tupi oil field. Isnard Penha Brasil said that “a membership decision will come after we know what our export capacity will be and we think this will be good.” Last week, Brazil confirmed … Read More
Saudis: World Energy Resources Far Bigger Than Perceived
As Exxon bemoans that it can’t find enough oil, Saudi Arabia is crowing how much of it there is about. Saudi Aramco President Abdullah S. Jum’ah told the World Energy Congress that liquid energy resources are far bigger than expected, and he is “optimistic” over the future. Jum’ah said there were enough conventional and non-conventional … Read More