[Fishman]

Remember reserves and production are very different. The US has one of the highest production rates ( in the top 10 or 20 I think) but little left in reserves.

[rwwff]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Fishman', 'R')emember reserves and production are very different. The US has one of the highest production rates ( in the top 10 or 20 I think) but little left in reserves.

[Fishman]

Agree that there are areas unexplored due to political reasons, the amount is a question however. The axiom may be"get it anyway you can, anywhere you can". That does seem to be china's view

[mekrob]

Remaining oil left in the US is around 80 bln barrels, proven and future discoveries. That means we have about 8% of the world's oil (probably less) and we produce about 8%, so we're right on target for depleting ours as fast as theirs.

I'd have to say though, that I believe world reserves (ultimate) to be much higher than 1 or even 1.2 trillion. I'd say about 1.5 trillion, possibly even 2 trillion, depending upon circumstances. That means the US actually depletes awfully quickly comparatively.

[MonteQuest]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mekrob', 'R')emaining oil left in the US is around 80 bln barrels, proven and future discoveries. That means we have about 8% of the world's oil (probably less) and we produce about 8%, so we're right on target for depleting ours as fast as theirs.

[rwwff]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mekrob', 'R')emaining oil left in the US is around 80 bln barrels, proven and future discoveries. That means we have about 8% of the world's oil (probably less) and we produce about 8%, so we're right on target for depleting ours as fast as theirs.

[Carlhole]

The Emerging Russian Giant Plays its Cards Strategically

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Engdahl', '.')..Following the Cheney meeting, Khodorkovsky began talks with ExxonMobil and ChevronTexaco, Condi Rice’s old firm, about taking a major state in Yukos, said to have been between 25% and 40%. That was intended to give Khodorkovsky de facto immunity from possible Putin government interference by tying Yukos to the big US oil giants and, hence, to Washington. It would also have given Washington, via the US oil giants, a de facto veto power over future Russian oil and gas pipelines and oil deals. Days before his October 2003 arrest on tax fraud charges, Khodorkovsky had entertained George H.W. Bush, the representative of the powerful and secretive Washington Carlyle Group in Moscow. They were discussing the final details of the US oil company share buy-in of Yukos.

Yukos had also just made a bid to acquire rival Sibneft from Boris Berezovsky, another Yeltsin-era Oligarch. YukosSibneft, with 19.5 billion barrels of oil and gas, would then own the second-largest oil and gas reserves in the world after ExxonMobil. YukosSibneft would be the fourth largest in the world in terms of production, pumping 2.3 million barrels of crude oil a day. The Exxon or Chevron buy-up of YukosSibneft would have been a literal energy coup d’etat. Cheney knew it; Bush knew it; Khodorkovsky knew it.

Above all, Vladimir Putin knew it and moved decisively to block it...

[Colorado-Valley]

Hey, I always read all of Engdahl's stuff.

He's very, very good.

[evilgenius]

I have been hinting that Russia might be a more dangerous player in the endgame than the US. Their position is a little bit weaker and what they have to gain is relatively greater. In terms of being tempted to go nuclear or to act deviously they have more incentive. Plus they have the foil of a fascist US to deal with, just in case we thought they might turn around and engage the endgame rationally as things progressed.

[MOCKBA]

References to less then a handful of outdated weapons to scare average joe is quite pathetic. For me the article (or latest events or some other articles I've read recently) once again asserted that US indeed archived military supremacy and could fight a nuclear war with both Russia and China simultaneously and I do have some knowledge of Russian Strategic Nuclear Forces being 1 months ahead and being able to dodge either active duty or reserves.

Moreover, my brother in law just finished doing his time in one of the best Russian armored divisions - the one that kicked Nazy ass from Moscow all the way to Berlin and since then has been constantly groomed... Well, comparing his experiences with some information that surfaced in connection with invasion of Iraq, Russian military is incapable of land war either (Russia stopped being blue navy state for quite sometime now). Don't get me wrong - Russia could defend itself same way it did during last world war, but that's about it... so scary story about handful of "modern Russian weapons", well, this is for those who choose to fear Russians.

As for strategic muscling as far as energy is concerned, we shall see when Russia would start producing those fields where due to the greed they kicked out foreign know-how. Last time they did it by themself was in 80-ies and we all know how this story goes. Where we stand today, Russia is thinking it is so damn important, but fails to notice that exports and thus oil dollars used to buy food are falling.

[EnergyUnlimited]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('MOCKBA', '
')........As for strategic muscling as far as energy is concerned, we shall see when Russia would start producing those fields where due to the greed they kicked out foreign know-how. Last time they did it by themself was in 80-ies and we all know how this story goes. Where we stand today, Russia is thinking it is so damn important, but fails to notice that exports and thus oil dollars used to buy food are falling.

[waegari]

It seems the Russians are getting quite desperate about their reserves:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'A') group of Russian scientists at the oil and gas research institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, led by Azary Barenbaum, have come up with a new explanation of the nature of oil and gas formation. They argue that huge reserves of hydrocarbons may take only decades to be formed, not millions of years, as earlier believed. The new theory was published this month in the leading Russian scientific magazine Nauka I Zhizn (Science and Life).

Researchers have registered an increase in oil reserves in oil-rich provinces where deposits were explored and have been developed for many years and where oil consumption is comparatively high. Those oil-rich areas include the Russian province of Tatarstan, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Texas and Oklahoma in the U.S., and Mexico. Depletion of reserves is possible only in the oil and gas exploration areas where consumption levels are low, holds Professor Barenbaum. He insists that formation of oil and gas is not so geological as climatic by nature, related to the water cycle and circulation of carbon on our planet.

[MD]

These concepts have some inertia within the Russian technical/scientific community.

So a few shallow reservoirs around the world are fed by deeper reservoirs, giving the impression of a perpetually replenishing supply. You can't extrapolate that into "no worries" without a whole host of other evidence, none of which looks likely to appear any time soon.

Here we go again!

[ohanian]

I don't give a rat's arse where oil comes from.

I just want lots of it at a dirt cheap price.

Let the academics argue over the P's and Q's of oil formation.

[Battle_Scarred_Galactico]

Old Civilizations used to prey to rain gods, the more things change the more they stay the same huh.

[MD]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Battle_Scarred_Galactico', 'O')ld Civilizations used to prey to rain gods, the more things change the more they stay the same huh.

[gg3]

Here we go again, alright.

Last time it was "good socialist wheat," c/o a man named Lysenko.

Now we have a fairly red socialist in Venezuela, as Chavez just used the S-word a bunch of times in his victory speech on Sunday.

And we have Putin, who is too much the realist to fall for quack oil theories.

No doubt both of them know what's up with PO. And both intend to play the oil card for political gain: Chavez with the carrot of subsidized heating oil for poor families in the US (OK, he gets points there for walking his talk), and Putin with the stick of potential cutoffs of Europe to obtain compliance.

I suspect that Putin is tolerating Quack Oil for the sake of letting the fog of confusion rise just a wee bit.

[Zardoz]

While reading this, the Saudis' claim of being able to increase production to 12,000,000 BPD came to mind.

I guess when you're a 900-pound gorilla, enjoying all the clout and prestige that being an animal of that size entails, you'll say anything to deny the reality that you're steadily losing weight.

[Loki]

The Russians have apparently also proved that Peak Oil is a Zionist scam. Those wascally Zionists!

Seriously, though, is there a consensus here at PO.com as to when Russian production will peak? A quick Google search revealed two sources that said it will peak in 2010 (here and here).

[mekrob]

The sad part about the "Peak Oil Zionist scam" site is that people that are anti-PO actually use that as (part of) their proof.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'S')eriously, though, is there a consensus here at PO.com as to when Russian production will peak?