Drumbeat: October 27, 2012
Show without comments | PDF version
256 comments | Comments can no longer be added to this story.
Drumbeat: October 27, 2012
Show without comments | PDF version
256 comments | Comments can no longer be added to this story.
“This order [i.e. capitalism] is now bound to the technical and economic conditions of machine production which today determine the lives of all the individuals who are born into this mechanism, not only those directly concerned with the economic acquisition, with irresistible force. Perhaps it will so determine them until the last ton of fossilized coal is burnt.”
—Max Weber, 1905
User login
Contact
- Content: editors at theoildrum dot com
- Tech support: support at theoildrum dot com
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
GAIA Host Collective
Re: America's (Un)Peak Oil
This commentary references the story written by Jonathan Fahey of AP, which was widely circulated on 23 October. I e-mailed Mr. Fahey and pointed out that his data includes ethanol in the EIA data he referenced and that US production peaked about 1970, not 1985. He checked and replied that indeed, the US production peak was in 1970.
http://www.eia.gov/totalenergy/data/annual/showtext.cfm?t=ptb0501a
Note that this reference lists petroleum production, which includes crude, lease condensate and natural gas liquids. It also includes ethanol in the total after 1981, so his story is based on a 1985 maximum includes much more than just crude. The Saudis, however, likely present just crude production, perhaps adding natural gas liquids as well. Read the footnotes to see how the definition(s) have changed, both for production and for imports...
E. Swanson
I don't see any mention of EROEI in that report!
Wonder how much fossil fuel will be extracted at breakeven, simply to keep the numbers rosy. After all, using a barrel to get a barrel means two barrels were ultimately extracted. Rinse and repeat as needed.
New oil has low EROEI based on the following observation:
My customer in Fargo, North Dakota takes loads of diesel from the pipeline there (fuel orginates in St. Paul, MN) and moves it to central ND. Reason is not so much cost, but refinery at Mandan owned by Tesoro processes 70,000 barrels per day of oil, yet cannot supply a region having less than 150,000 people.
All the diesel produced by that refinery goes to powering the Bakken oil fields and the economy that supports that oil production. And a large part of the Fargo economy is supporting the Bakken production and it is using oil refined in other states to the east. And drought reduced AG use of fuel. So, IMO the new oil produced is probably much lower EROEI than most oil from older wells. I would guess that Bakken oil is 6 or 7 EROEI at most. And when you consider taking that oil by truck and rail 1000 miles or farther to a refinery in the east or south, that figure drops even lower.
wow, that's bad
When you think about it, the fact that US peak in 1970 isn't common knowledge is truly amazing...