by Pops » Thu 16 Feb 2012, 14:06:14
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('meemoe_uk', '[')i]>Yeah, they were way off. We are getting what, .5mbd over depletion so, 4mbd?
No.
From the graph you can see we are now 6Mbpd above the August 2004 figure. The hype article said there'd be a 3.5Mbpd shortage in just sustaining 2004 output.
So it's a 9.5Mbpd difference. That's a clear fail by any standard.
Ah, I see the problem, you don't understand depletion. Look at the chart below (ignore the dates, it's just for reference)
You said "3.5Mbpd shortage" but by when? September 2004? 2012? 2050?
Wells are running dry and must be replaced continuously, that's depletion. 3.5mbd was the estimated depletion
per year (reduction of production capacity) that would need replacing. In this case they were figuring maybe 4% per year? Existing production is the dark blue area in that first chart below, it is always depleting (declining in the future) and always needs replacement, because again, wells, fields, regions eventually run dry.
So again,
new production is required to be found and brought on line each year just to stay even. The forecasters were saying they didn't think we could. In this case that works out to 3.5Mbd of depletion each year, multiplied by 8 years = 28Mb/d of depletion by 2012. That's 3 Saudi Arabias for comparison. That's the grey area in the chart.
Looking at conventional oil alone, the estimate was too pessimistic because we have been able to stay even, barely (2nd chart) . Always in the past high prices made people go out and drill more wells and you would think we'd have added capacity but we have not, I think that is basically what the authors were forecasting.
What they weren't expecting was how much expensive low-net substitutes like ethanol, gas condensate, heavy and the really expensive stuff like shale and deepwater the economy would try to buy. Those expensive substitutes are what added .75Mbd/yr over the 8 years to reach the 6Mb/d additional all liquids capacity (I was figuring 4mbd but no matter).
So, we were able to tread water by adding 28 Mb/d of cheap conventional oil to offset depletion plus substitutes 6 MBD of inferior product at 3 times the 2004 price.
So again, who's prediction was the bigger fail:
The head Corny, Yergin's 100Mbd @ $25/bbl by 2010
or
"Cheap oil is past."


Edit to fix saudi number
The legitimate object of government, is to do for a community of people, whatever they need to have done, but can not do, at all, or can not, so well do, for themselves -- in their separate, and individual capacities.
-- Abraham Lincoln, Fragment on Government (July 1, 1854)