Re:  Top 20

It looks like they left off Daqing, which is a confirmed decline.  

As I understand it, there are four fields that are currently producing about one mbpd or more:  Ghawar; Cantarell; Burgan and Daqing.  We know that three of the four are declining, and it is very likely that Ghawar is now declining.  

Note that it takes lots of smaller fields to make up for declines in fields producing about 10 mbpd.  

The two "cleanest" HL case histories we have are the Lower 48 and the North Sea.  The two principal constraints on production were:  (1)  they would not produce oil at a loss and (2)  fields were generally produced at a rate which would not damage the reservoirs.   There were no substantial political problems or constraints on production.

The Lower 48 peaked at slightly less than 50% (at 49%) and the North Sea peaked at slightly over 50% (52%).  In other words, slightly less than 50% to slightly more than 50%.  These were both for crude + condensate   Deffeyes estimated that we hit the crude + condensate 50% of Qt mark worldwide in mid-December.  The highest crude + condensate EIA number on record was for December, followed promptly by about a 500,000 bpd drop in January.

In the article that Khebab and I coauthored that was published on March 6, 2006, we had following statement:

"A critical point to keep in mind is that an exporter can only export what is left after domestic consumption is satisfied. Consider a simple example, a country producing 2.0 mbpd, consuming 1.0 mbpd and therefore exporting 1.0 mbpd. Let's assume a 25% drop in production over a six year period (which we have seen in the North Sea, which by the way peaked at 52% of Qt) and let's assume a 10% increase in domestic consumption. Production would be 1.5 mbpd. Consumption would be 1.1 mbpd. Net exports would be production (1.5 mbpd) less consumption (1.1 mbpd) = 0.4 mbpd. Therefore, because of a 25% drop in production and because of a 10% increase in domestic consumption, net oil exports from our hypothetical net exporter dropped by 60%, from 1.0 mbpd to 0.4 mbpd, over a six year period.

We are deeply concerned that the world is probably facing an imminent and catastrophic collapse in net oil export capacity because of declining production and increasing domestic consumption in the top exporting countries."

From 2/10/06 to 4/7/06, total net oil imports into the US dropped 13.2%, which corresponded to a 20% increase in oil prices.

Consider the simple math.  If Deffeyes is correct, at current rates of consumption, by the time that a first grader, entering the first grade this September, 2006, is ready for the fifth grade in September, 2010, we will have used more than 10% of all remaining conventional crude + condensate reserves.

So lay it down for the layman, westexas.  You seem to be fairly supportive of Deffeyes' "December 16th" call, and your predictions of steep drops in oil imports to the US since around that time have apparently so far been correct.

Are you saying that the S has HTF?

There is always the possibility of post hoc ergo proctor hoc (just because "B" follows "A" doesn't mean that "B" is caused by, or related to, "A."); however, the HL method that I am using has a proven track record.

Having said that, IMO the SHTF.  

I think that we should all practice ELF.

Economize--try to reduce your spending to 50% of current income.  Assume that you just got a 50% pay cut. What actions would you then take?

Localize--try to reduce the distance between home and work to as close to zero as possible.  Assume that gasoline costs about the same as Norway, $7 per gallon or more.  What actions would you then take?

Produce--look into becoming or affiliating yourself with a net food producer or net energy producer.  Or at least try to work with a company that provides basic needs, instead of "wants."  Today, the majority of Americans live off the discretionary income of other Americans.  Assume that our discretionary income drops by 50%, what industries would you want to be in?

We need to radically rethink the kinds of careers that young people should go into, and parents need to think very hard about going into debt to unleash yet another law school graduate on the country.  

Thanks for your insightful analysis and advice.  Have been ElFing for some time now-- short drive to work in hybrid purchased with cash, work in a relatively recession-proof firm (though I'll have to re-evaluate this with the long term in mind), have been vege gardening for several years, am on CSA plan with a large local farm, etc.

More than anything else I worry about the same things as many of my generation: how will society in general react/respond, and how will my childrens' future look.

It's fascinating to map some of the indicators chronicled by you and others here to occurrances in the world.  I accept the risk of beating the dead horse when I say, "we live in interesting times."

we wont see problems until crude stocks begin to decline. It makes sense for imports to decline if refineries cant use more crude - they might be choking on the stuff right now in part because not all refineries are back on line. Price can be high when the use refuses to take as much crude as before not necessarily because of geopolitical concerns, which naturally are big right now, but because the rest of the world is buying, not least the new kids in the east. If price were based simply on the level of crude stocks, price would be much lower right now.
"we wont see problems until crude stocks begin to decline"

Let's assume that 100% of crude oil stocks consist of heavy, sour crude--which cannot be run though a refinery that will handle only light, sweet crude. Would we then have a problem?

My point is that we have no idea what percentage of current crude inventories consists of heavy, sour.  No one tracks it.

When the government is not putting oil in the SPR, there is only one market for light, sweet crude oil:  refineries.

If refineries did not need the oil, why would they have bid up the price by 20% since mid-February?

Look at the trends in the past two months:  total petroleum imports down by 13%, light, sweet crude oil prices up by 20%.  This suggests to me that we have only begun to see the price increases.

PO may be coming soon, but recent market behavior can be explained without it. (World) prices are high because of the iranian confrontation; nobody wants to be without crude if TSHTF. OTOH, (US) crude stocks are very high on account of K/R disruptions, so (US) users cannot accept more crude at this time, sending crude elsewhere, maybe from the persian gulf to china/india, whose refineries are not suffering from similar problems. Note that this theory explains the poor market for long haul tankers - shorter shipping distance reduces the need.
Iranian leaders find the confrontation usefully rallies the population to their side; nevertheless, if they agreed to allow russia to enrich their fuel, crude would fall, maybe back to the opec floor of around 55-60.
It is true that commercial stocks would be 15mmb lower if loans from teh spr were repaid, and gasoline stocks would be around 2mmb lower if loans from europe were repaid.