I’ve just published a foreign policy-related post at Outside the Beltway:
Massive Oil Discovery Puts Outback Town on World Energy Map
Some are crowing that the discovery will render Saudi Arabia unimportant.
I’ve just published a foreign policy-related post at Outside the Beltway:
Massive Oil Discovery Puts Outback Town on World Energy Map
Some are crowing that the discovery will render Saudi Arabia unimportant.
“When we know more about the quality and total upstream costs of pumping oil from this newly discovered Australian field, we’ll be able to start thinking about geopolitical impact. But there must be a lot of nervous leaders in Middle Eastern countries about now. There is such a thing as a stability premium.”
This is, of course, exactly correct. The Australian find has a long way to go before some sort of quasi-equilibrium is reached and the final impact assessed.
Here in the US much of the low hanging fruit has been had. For example, Shell just pulled out of a major effort (in TX, I believe) because the available volumes were declining. Expect the industry structure to naturally move to numerous smaller extractors with better cost structures at lower volumes and with higher extraction costs. But there are still giant volumes to be had.
BTW – jib10 or whatever he/she called him/herself was closest in that thread to insight. Poor Beasley and Indjino or whatever.
Meh, I still didn’t understand why 200 miles* to the ocean is that much of an impediment. Its like someone announced a massive oil find in Northern Louisiana. Its not North Dakota. Its not even East Texas. How would we get that oil to the market? We would build a pipeline to Lake Charles, across and under a multitude of swamps and rivers. The biggest impediments are legal. Private and environmental. A remote desert area with a gentle slope to the sea should be a piece of cake. I found most of the comments in the thread speculative.
*360 km to the Ocean from Coober Pedy = 224 miles.
Beasley has always been a committed peak oil believer, which frames his opinions about the usefulness of any new oil field discoveries.
Well, if we are at peak oil then cost of extraction shouldn’t be that much of a concern, the price of oil will be rising steadily.
In your last comment, PD, that’s pretty much how I see it. Mines work the same way. Shut-open-shut-open…. And when a viable price point exists the extraction taps into vast quantities for quite some time at that relative price. Then you exhaust that reservoir.
I’m no Peak Oil investigator but very dubious. It seems designed by the Green crowd to dissuade fossil fuel exploration and usage. Like Global warming and its embarrassingly bad recent report. Its all political and ideological. But as we all know, no one would flat out lie for political gain. You know, say something like “if you want to keep your plan you can. Period. And we will reduce your premiums $2500.”
Never happen…………….