Leading Oil Expert Warns Oil Supplies are Running Out Fast - This is Absolute B.S.

From the Independent:

The world is heading for a catastrophic energy crunch that could cripple a global economic recovery because most of the major oil fields in the world have passed their peak production, a leading energy economist has warned.

Higher oil prices brought on by a rapid increase in demand and a stagnation, or even decline, in supply could blow any recovery off course, said Dr Fatih Birol, the chief economist at the respected International Energy Agency (IEA) in Paris, which is charged with the task of assessing future energy supplies by OECD countries.

I have shown time and again, here at AB, that the United States has more than enough oil to feed it's own need, and then some.

Saudi Arabia is far and away the world's leading oil-producing nation. We are far and away the world's leading oil-consuming nation.

And yet, we already provide 50% of our own oil.

And, in the past few years, we have discovered oil fields in Montana/Dakotas, and in Colorado, which have FIVE TIMES AS MUCH OIL AS SAUDI ARABIA.

In fact, America has enough oil to be the #1 oil-producing nation in the world:

According to NPR, the Rocky Mountains contain three times the oil of Saudi Arabia.

An oil field was just recently discovered in the South Dakota/Montana region which has three times as much oil as the Rockies.

There is also a tremendous amount of oil in the ANWR region.

All that oil, and we don't drill for it.

Why?

Because of pressure from environmentalists.

We could be winning the battle for energy independence, but instead, we choose to lose, and thus forfeit our profits into the hands of Jihadists and Communists the world over.

I repeat, we are losing because we choose to lose, and we do so, primarily because of pressure from environmentalist groups.

That's like a football team choosing to lose because of pressure from their own cheerleaders.

MORE:

Massive Oil Deposit Could Increase US reserves by 10x

America is sitting on top of a super massive 200 billion barrel Oil Field that could potentially make America Energy Independent and until now has largely gone unnoticed. Thanks to new technology the Bakken Formation in North Dakota could boost America’s Oil reserves by an incredible 10 times, giving western economies the trump card against OPEC’s short squeeze on oil supply and making Iranian and Venezuelan threats of disrupted supply irrelevant.

In the next 30 days the USGS (U.S. Geological Survey) will release a new report giving an accurate resource assessment of the Bakken Oil Formation that covers North Dakota and portions of South Dakota and Montana.

With new horizontal drilling technology it is believed that from 175 to 500 billion barrels of recoverable oil are held in this 200,000 square mile reserve that was initially discovered in 1951.

And, when the report came out, here's what it said:

Report: 4.3 Billion Barrels of Oil in North Dakota, Eastern Montana

BISMARCK, N.D. – The government estimates up to 4.3 billion barrels of oil can be recovered from the Bakken shale formation in North Dakota and Montana, using current technology.

The U.S. Geological Survey calls it the largest continuous oil accumulation it has ever assessed.

IN OTHER WORDS, EVEN MORE THAN THEY INITIALLY EXPECTED.

THIS POINTS UP A VERY IMPORTANT FACT TO UNDERSTAND. WE KEEP FINDING MORE OIL ALL THE TIME.

ESTIMATES KEEP GETTING HIGHER AND HIGHER ON THE AMOUNT OF OIL WHICH CAN BE RECOVERED.

THIS IS BECAUSE TECHNOLOGY FOR DETECTING OIL, AND DRILLING FOR IT, KEEPS GETTING MORE AND MORE ADVANCED.

THE KNOWN RESERVES OF OIL ARE HIGHER NOW THAN EVER BEFORE IN HISTORY, AND YET THE PARISIAN EXPERT QUOTED IN THE INDEPENDENT WOULD HAVE US BELIEVE WE ARE RUNNING OUT OF OIL.

WHY DO YOU THINK THAT IS?

IS SHE IGNORANT, OR DOES SHE SIMPLY HAVE AN ANTI-OIL AGENDA?

Here's a paper written on the subject by Dr. Bill Kovarik from Radford University.

The Oil Reserve Fallacy

*******Update/Reliapundit: FROM 7/29/09

Crude futures tumbled almost 6% Wednesday as U.S. oil inventories unexpectedly rose, raising fresh concerns of weak demand.

Light, sweet crude for September delivery settled down $3.88, or 5.8%, at $63.35 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. This is the lowest finish for crude futures since July 16 and the biggest single-day decline in both dollar and percentage terms since April 20. Brent crude on the ICE futures exchange settled $3.35, or 4.8% lower, at $66.53 a barrel.

Crude futures dropped as low as $63.04 a barrel after the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported crude oil stockpiles rose by 5.1 million barrels last week, defying analysts expectations of a 1.2-million-barrel draw. The gain was the first since May, as oil imports rose but refiners processed less crude.

INVENTORIES ARE STILL UP - BUT PRICES ARE CLIMBING, TOO.

I SUSPECT IT IS MANIPULATION BY OPEC AND THEIR ENABLERS.

WITH INVENTORIES HIGHER THAN NORMAL AND PLENTY OF RESERVES AROUND THERE IS NO LOGICAL OR MARKET-BASED REASON FOR THE PRICE TO BE AS HIGH AS IT IS AND GOING UP.

SOMETHING IN THE MARKET IS NOT FUNCTIONING.

AND IT IS PROBABLY ILLEGAL.