Canada: Rising prices spread fear at the pumps

You drive past the gas station in Orleans and the sign says your fill is going for $1.22 a litre. Blame it on Russia.

The world’s largest oil producer reported that its output decreased for the first time in 10 years. It delivered one per cent less oil than a year ago.

What’s disconcerting about this little-known fact, trumpeted recently on the front page of The Wall Street Journal but getting little play elsewhere, is that the scenario unfolding in Russia is being repeated the world over. Essentially, its Siberian oil fields are aging, becoming tired, the easy-to-reach oil declining.

It is not alone. The world’s great oil deposits — the North Sea, Mexico’s Cantarell deposit and Alaska’s Prudhoe Bay — are seeing their production diminish despite astronomical demand.

So what of production from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries? Its output is flat, in part due to declining fields.

Ottawa Citizen