Wikileaks: Saudi Reserves Overstated

[JackieDan]

WikiLeaks has released cables revealing that Saudi Arabia's oil reserves may have been exaggerated by as much as 40%, or 300 billion barrels.

http://www.economywatch.com/in-the-...rves-overstated-peak-oil-on-horizon.10-02.htm

 

[hugolp]

According to the guy the extraction rate should be peaking at 2012 and remain stable until around 2040, then start the decline.

 

[pmbug]

The question is whether demand will remain stable through the same period of time.

 

[Travlyr]

Another thread where I can promote legalizing a good weed... Industrial Hemp!

Seriously, how dumb are our lawmakers (with the exception of two, or three)? Legalizing industrial hemp would alleviate many problems created by banning it. There is simply no excuse for any sheriff in America to let federal agents destroy, fine, or imprison anyone who grows the greenest, most environmentally friendly, plant on earth.

 

[jon_perez]

Have any of you guys heard the recent news about proven reserves found in Venezuela that possibly exceed that of even Saudi Arabia?

 

[enoch150]

Another thread where I can promote legalizing a good weed... Industrial Hemp!

Seriously, how dumb are our lawmakers (with the exception of two, or three)? Legalizing industrial hemp would alleviate many problems created by banning it. There is simply no excuse for any sheriff in America to let federal agents destroy, fine, or imprison anyone who grows the greenest, most environmentally friendly, plant on earth.

If everyone ran their cars on hemp instead of oil products the exhaust would cause some serious hippy problems.

 

[Zippyjuan]

If everyone ran their cars on hemp instead of oil products the exhaust would cause some serious hippy problems.

If everybody ran their car we would be importing massive amounts of hemp oil.

I don't know if the energy yields are similar but I looked at hemp oil yields per acre and if we were to replace our current petroleum consumption with hemp oil (figuring one barrel of oil was the same as one barrel of hemp oil) we would have to plant an area something like four times the total land mass of the entire United States.

Have any of you guys heard the recent news about proven reserves found in Venezuela that possibly exceed that of even Saudi Arabia?

The USGS estimated that it MIGHT have up to 500 billion barrels. But others dispute that estimate. It also depends on what is both physically and economically recoverable. Most Venezuelan oil is "heavy" and requires lots of refining making it more expensive (in addition to exploration and extraction costs). If it costs say $150 a barrel to extract and you can only sell it at $90, it is not worth it.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8476395.stm

The USGS team gave a mean estimate of 513bn barrels of "technically recoverable" oil in the Orinoco belt.

Chris Schenk of the USGS said the estimate was based on oil recovery rates of 40% to 45%.

However, Venezuelan oil geologist and former PDVSA board member Gustavo Coronel was sceptical.

"I doubt the recovery factor could go much higher than 25% and much of that oil would not be economic to produce", he told Associated Press news agency.

Venezuela holds the largest oil reserves of any Opec country outside the Middle East. Saudi Arabia has proven reserves of 260bn barrels.

 

[Travlyr]

If everybody ran their car we would be importing massive amounts of hemp oil.

Or we would be employing massive amounts of people growing and processing hemp rather than paying farmers to not grow crops.

I don't know if the energy yields are similar but I looked at hemp oil yields per acre and if we were to replace our current petroleum consumption with hemp oil (figuring one barrel of oil was the same as one barrel of hemp oil) we would have to plant an area something like four times the total land mass of the entire United States.

Industrial hemp is not likely to produce enough oil to replace petroleum but it would help, and it is clean burning. Keeping it illegal to grow is stupid, or rather keeping hemp oil and hemp products from competing with the petroleum industry is protection... which is still stupid.

 

[youngbuck]

If everyone ran their cars on hemp instead of oil products the exhaust would cause some serious hippy problems.

Hemp is not psychoactive.

 

[juvanya]

Another thread where I can promote legalizing a good weed... Industrial Hemp!

Seriously, how dumb are our lawmakers (with the exception of two, or three)? Legalizing industrial hemp would alleviate many problems created by banning it. There is simply no excuse for any sheriff in America to let federal agents destroy, fine, or imprison anyone who grows the greenest, most environmentally friendly, plant on earth.

Wasnt Washington a hemp farmer?