The Oil Drum

80 comments on A little more illustrative info on Russia

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Dave Cohen on February 10, 2006 - 12:47am

Thanks for this, HO. I am now putting together my Russian reserves & future production post. This W. Siberian field (Samotlor) and Volga-Ural field (Romashkino) information is great. Both areas are very mature. Most increased Russian production is from EOR in W. Siberia. New stuff must come from both these regions and new areas (like Pechora and Sakhalin).]

Great stuff, thanks again.

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Mad Maxout on February 10, 2006 - 9:50pm

The (now former) USSR peaked in 1988. The CIA knew in advance that it would happen close to that time. Somewhere in the cia.gov site is the declassified files on this. The Soviet oil peak is the real reason we "won" the Cold War. The Reagan strategy was simply to overbuild the military to cause them to overspend on their military and not use energy/money on alternatives. It worked, but was short-sighted, potentially sealing our own fate.

I posted my theory on USENET calling it 'A "Peak" Into The X-Files'. I saw the Soviet peak on hubbertpeak.com at the time and saw the connection. Once the USSR couldn't sell oil, they had their hard currency supply cut off, causing their eventual collapse. I figured it out BEFORE I saw the CIA file on the Web. Talk about a wakeup call about oil peaks! The CIA declassified file merely verified what I already knew. The file discusses the 1970s Lower 48 peak, the embargo, and economic disruption as the precedent to "staying the course" until collapse of the Soviet Empire.