<Checking in on SSTs The Oil Drum Stories from around the country>

53 comments on Weekend Open Thread (and a link to HO v. Econbrowser)

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Solaris on April 30, 2006 - 12:18pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Leanan, I agree. This one shocked the hell out of me. How can you have so many industry "experts" who know so much less about the situation than we do? Most TODers probably saw the reports last summer where Lee Raymond said that North American natural gas production had probably peaked. Shouldn't the concept of geologic limits explored a little further than this:

The country is not running out either. There's enough natural gas to last beyond 65 years -- much longer than oil, according to the best forecasts.

What forecasts are those???  How many more years do we have to go before anyone in the MSM realizes there are geologic limits to fossil fuel extraction??

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Leanan on April 30, 2006 - 12:40pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
I think what they are missing is EROEI.  The numbers say there's plenty of natural gas still out there...but it's in smaller deposits, deeper down, in areas that are harder to drill and farther from infrastructure. So it's not being extracted as quickly. It can't be extracted as quickly, no matter the price.
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Dave Cohen on April 30, 2006 - 1:56pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top
Yes, I wrote about this here.

There are some "questionable" estimates of how much natural gas the US has (eg. a 65 years supply). But here's the kicker.

The article is a good example of two basically contradictory assertions.

  1. There's plenty of natural gas.
  2. People are paying high prices for natural gas.
Therefore, it follows from #1 and #2 that there must be some kind of conspiracy afoot to keep natural gas prices high. And so the average "consumer" jumps to this conclusion. And it's hard to blame him. But, if #1 is false (which it is for North America), then there's no mystery as to why prices are high. These remarks apply to oil as well.

Strange, I never had this thought before but maybe somebody else here has.

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53 comments on Weekend Open Thread (and a link to HO v. Econbrowser)

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