The Bear’s Lair: The effects of $80 oil

“If oil were to reach $80 per barrel, it is by no means certain that a glut of production would be forthcoming, driving its price down once again to a third or a quarter of that level, as happened in 1982-1998. Both current production capacity and world oil reserves are significantly tighter than in the early 1980s. A 2003 study by the University of Uppsala, Sweden suggested that total world oil reserves were only around 3.5 trillion barrels, compared to estimates of between 5 trillion and 18 trillion by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. This is good news for those fearing global warming (if you haven’t got it, you can’t burn it) but would imply world oil production peaking around 2010, and a future price path much higher than we have seen in the past.”

UPI