We wondered why Iran's recent seizure of Iraqi oil wells did not get much media play, or why activating the 4th Fleet after 58 years, then sending them to the Americas south of our borders was likewise not getting much media play.Then all of a sudden this new story, totally unaffected by government influence, about a new scientific discovery came across my eye balls:
An estimated 513 billion barrels of technically recoverable heavy oil are in Venezuela’s Orinoco Oil Belt.(USGS Release). Was I wrong to conclude that something was surely afoot, even though I am not yet sure what exactly it is that is afoot?
This area contains one of the world's largest recoverable oil accumulations, and this assessment is the first to identify how much is technically recoverable (producible using currently available technology and industry practices).
Worldwide consumption of petroleum was 85.4 million barrels per day in 2008. The three largest consuming countries were United States with 19.5 million barrels per day, China with 7.9 million barrels per day, and Japan with 4.8 million barrels per day.
“Knowing the potential for extractable resources from this tremendous oil accumulation, and others like it, is critical to our understanding of the global petroleum potential and informing policy and decision makers,” said USGS Energy Resources Program Coordinator Brenda Pierce. “Accumulations like this one were previously very difficult to produce, but advances in technology and new understandings in geology allow us to assess how much is now technically recoverable."
This story is related to the Canadian thick oil, since the Argentinian oil is thick as well, but so is heroin and so is opium tar.
Does anyone know how to say "Oilah Akbar" in Spanish? (el petróleo de dios es gran)?
What this would mean, if we secure a supply to our drug oil needs, by military control of course, from south of our own borders, is that we will happily continue to impose global warming upon the rest of the world. [we use more oil than China and Japan (#2 & #3) combined]
That global warming conspiracy theory won't effect those of us in the know, of course.
One wrinkle in the story is that China and Argentina have substantial agreements concerning oil, which would put China at odds with the U.S. in the Americas ... so what do we know about the status of the "Monroe Doctrine"?
Is it limited in application to Europe, or does it also apply to China? Does it even apply to Argentina?
The next post in this series is here, the previous post in this series is here.
Yo Dredd,
ReplyDeleteI'd just like to add that all this "oil war" stuff represents a HUGE opportunity cost to the effort to convert to new energy sources and combat (if we are in fact, actually even TRYING to combat) global warming. Whenever I get into it with techno buffs or others who "poo-poo" the idea that converting to non-carbon based fuels or fighting global warming will be MONUMENTAL tasks, I am just continually amazed at how they underestimate the huge amount of energy and money we are continuing to divert in support of our current lifestyle regimes (and which will only grow as those resources continue to be depleted), and how that directly and with interest negatively affects our long term efforts to convert. With governments across the world running huge deficits and corporations for the most part not having the ability to make such long term outlays, with every passing year, it becomes more and more unlikely that the effort will ever get seriously off the ground at all. IMO, we've already passed that point, certainly after Bush's reelction in 2004, if not after his inauguration in 2000. Obama's simply the confirmation that the fix was already in.
disaffected,
ReplyDeleteYes that sums it up too.
There are scenarios that would have less impact on the coming consequences of having ignored the problem for far too long.
That they would also have a very good effect on our environmental reality is not unknown.
But my pessimistic self is in accord with yours, and I think the movie "2012" viewpoint where the governments made arks of survival for themselves, and the rich, but not for anyone else, is indicative of the reality that they are preparing to bury us, not to save us.
That is their idea of efficiency.