[cudabachi]

What Lies Below?

Issues 2007 - How much oil lies beneath the Earth's crust? The only thing we know for sure is that history is littered with estimates so far off the mark—usually below the mark—that they border on the comical.

[EnergyHog]

The article states over and over again that there is absolutely no way to know how much oil is in the ground. And therefore that must mean there is plenty left and there is nothing to worry about.

When it comes to oil, the longer it's been around, the more people accept that it will always be around. But when I try to sell those same people a car with 180,000 miles on it, telling them that it ran forever so it must run forever, they don't want it.

[skyemoor]

Note the article's author, Maugeri, is vice president of ENI, the third largest publicly traded oil and gas company in Europe and the seventh in the world.

[FireJack]

The majority of people don't read newpapers or anything, so even if he claimed that oil was running out and its the end of the world it wouldnt make any difference. Those who did read it would simply brush it off as alarmist or whatever. Midas well tell people what they want to hear, you sell more that way.

[mekrob]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('FireJack', 'T')he majority of people don't read newpapers or anything, so even if he claimed that oil was running out and its the end of the world it wouldnt make any difference. Those who did read it would simply brush it off as alarmist or whatever. Midas well tell people what they want to hear, you sell more that way.

[Zardoz]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'A')nd to complicate matters further, we are witnessing a minor revival of interest in an old Russian theory that oil can be born of chemical reactions in deep inner Earth, not of fossils decaying closer to the surface. This holds the dim but intriguing prospect that oil might be a renewable resource.

[Barbara]

Any italian peakoiler knows Maugeri is an asshole.

[Cobra_Strike]

Something I have seen, any good calming news will be hyped. The Jack well in the gulf is a great example, wildly overstate...print retractions buried in the back of the paper some time later.

[shortonoil]

Cobra_Strike said:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'S')omething I have seen, any good calming news will be hyped. The Jack well in the gulf is a great example, wildly overstate...print retractions buried in the back of the paper some time later.

[TonyPrep]

The Oil Drum had an article about this. It shows Maugeri's astonishing lack of knowledge about oil, despite his position.

One of the many incredible points that caught my eye, in Maugeri's article, was his lack of math skills. He stated that the USGS estimated 2.6 trillion barrels of oil remained (including undiscovered) of which 1.1 trillion barrels are proven reserves. He then went on to say that, if true, and with growth at a little under 2%, this means we have enough oil to last for most of this century. Assuming that the oil could be produced at whatever rate we want, if he'd actually done the calculation on paper, instead of sticking a finger in the air, Maugeri would have realised that the proven reserves would last (i.e. completely depleted) in 29 years and the 2.6 trillion barrels would be gone in 53 years. Of course, as oil can't be produced at whatever rate we want, the peak will occur well before those periods.

And this is the lead article in a special energy edition. No wonder the world is sleepwalking to disaster.

[shortonoil]

TonyPrep said:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')he Oil Drum had an article about this. It shows Maugeri's astonishing lack of knowledge about oil, despite his position.