258. U.S. CRUDE INVENTORIES HIGHEST IN 7 YEARS
News flash:
SINGAPORE, March 9 (Reuters) - Oil prices slipped under $60 a barrel on Thursday taking losses for the week to 6 percent after OPEC decided to keep pumping at near full rates and U.S. crude inventories built to the highest level in nearly seven years.SourceI'm not sure how the peak oilers explain this one. After all, Professor Kenneth Deffeyes of Princeton University (one of the best-paid, most widely respected geologists in the world) claims we already peaked months ago. And as recently as Aug. 6, 2005, Matthew R. Simmons (one of the best-paid, most widely respected investment bankers in the world) was claiming that by now we'd be seeing a global oil shortage of 2 to 5 million barrels per day.
-- by JD
posted by JD @ 4:05 AM
3 comments
3 Comments:
So, the natural behaviour we would expect when confronted with what seems to be uncertain times ahead is relegated to "*scary organ music*"?
Maybe high inventories *are* related to a fear of scarcity.
Maybe they're just simply the result of the warmer than anticipated winter and the transition from heating to gasoline production.
"Maybe high inventories are a sign that those holding the inventories are worried about future supplies... When the future looks uncertain people tend to horde and save. I think high inventories are what one would expect as we approach peak."
There's no amount of hording that could keep the United States in business once the realities of PO sets in. The hording mentality is borne out of the dumbfuck notion that, by clamping down onto a few hundred-million barrels of light sweet crude in a few warehouses, we can maintain our quality of life (Or, hell, at least our military's) while the rest of the planet crashes and burns.
Viva America.
Except that our fuel consumptions are so ridiculously high that there's NO WAY that any amount of hording would benefit the economy. This isn't Australia. Once you find a place to start stockpiling (No small task in and of itself), there's still the small matter of infrastructure explosion, doomer craziness in the streets, and economic shutdown.
At which point, nobody could give two shits that there's a bunch of oil stagnating in a warehouse somewhere.
More likely, the surplus high represents a blind-ass stab by the government to alleviate market pressure due to the fact that we're now face-down and ass-up on the Iran side of national policy.
The Iranians continue to push weight on the global stage, gas explodes to four dollars a gallon this summer, and Bush looks like a hero for a week or two by "unleashing the national surplus". It's an old idiot dog-fed trick, and never fails to charm the shit out of the population.
For a few weeks.
The US military has warned that surplus oil production capacity could disappear within two years and there could be serious shortages by 2015 with a significant economic and political impact.
The energy crisis outlined in a Joint Operating Environment report from the US Joint Forces Command, comes as the price of petrol in Britain reaches record levels and the cost of crude is predicted to soon top $100 a barrel.
"By 2012, surplus oil production capacity could entirely disappear, and as early as 2015, the shortfall in output could reach nearly 10 million barrels per day," says the report, which has a foreword by a senior commander, General James N Mattis.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/apr/11/peak-oil-production-supply
Freewheelin' Franklin
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