Washington acting from Fundamental strategic weakness, not from absolute strength

Against the prospect that many of the largest oil fields today are in a marked decline in output, world demand for oil is rising ruthlessly, marked by the growing economies of China, India and Asia. Even at today’s weak GDP growth rates, economists estimate that world demand for oil at today’s prices will rise by some 2% per year.

NVDL: tHE PROBLEM THEREFORE IS A PROBLEM NOT ONLY OF SUPPLY, BUT CONCOMITANTLY, OF DEMAND. While we can do little to influence ultimate recoverable endowments of energy, we can do a lot to change our own, everyday habits. All that is required is a collective will. And a few individuals, leaders, brave enough to communicate the Bad New Deal (forced, managed economic contraction) to the nations/consumers of this planet.

clipped from www.fogcityjournal.com The burning question is where will we get such a huge increase of oil? In the decade from 1990 to 2000, a total of 42 billion barrels of new oil reserves were discovered worldwide. In the same period, the world consumed 250 billion barrels. In the past two decades only three giant fields with more than one billion barrels each have been discovered. One in Norway, in Columbia and Brazil. None of these produce more than 200,000 barrels a day. This is far from 50 million barrels a day which the world will need. These five countries - Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the UAE - through circumstances of geology, contain the oil and gas reserves vital to the future economic growth of the world. If the peak oil analysis is accurate, it suggests why Washington may be willing to risk so much to control Iraq and through its bases there, the five oil-rich countries. It suggests Washington is acting from a fundamental strategic weakness, not from absolute strength as is often thought.