Pending Oil Crisis

Heavens, what are we up against?

It seems these days that we are inundated with worsening situations, not just in Canada but worldwide:  Increasing terrorism threats; Global arrests of Al Qaeda operatives; More corruption in our Canadian Liberal federal government; A backlash against Official Bilingualism resulting in Mini Official Bilingualism referendums, that incidentally are overwhelmingly against implementing Official Bilingualism in Canada's Capitol; A new Republic of Western Canada demanding separation of the West from the Canadian Constitution.  Worrisome issues that all Canadians should be concerned about.   

Take heed, people. 

There is another pending crisis that may be even more serious than all of the above that you should be aware of.  A threat looms on the horizon that mainstream media mentions only in blips.  A crisis that will disrupt our lives and could possibly destroy our way of life.  It is time to pull our heads out of our parochial issues and understand what is happening in the rest of the world and how it will impact our lives. 

Not many of we ordinary people have been paying much attention to the corporate battles raging in the oil industry.  Yes, we have been angry as the price of gasoline has risen, going to almost a dollar a liter this spring.  In the U.S., Americans are paying more for gasoline than at any other time in history.  Perhaps it is time that we paid more attention to what is going on in the oil industry.  Especially since I have seen some predictions that the price of gasoline could go as high as $10 per gallon in the U.S.  And according to my research, they may not be wrong. 

This is not being alarmist.  I personally have been receiving reports for more than a year of the depletion of global oil reserves.  But this week I received a disturbing report that even the Saudi's oil reserves may not be as large as they have been stating.  At this time they are pumping millions of gallons of salt water into the wells to sustain the pressure to pump out their oil.  In other words, they may have been lying to continue their power plays in the markets.  And since most of the world is dependent on oil out of Saudi Arabia to fuel the global economy, this is not good news. 

Thus my research began.  Wow!  I found tons of information on this topic.  According to a multitude of international reports from energy experts, industry insiders, geophysists' analyses, and government organizations' summaries, it does appear that there is a very real energy crisis facing us within the next few years.  Some say oil will begin running out globally by the summer of July 2006; others who predicted 2010 now have moved up the date to 2008.  See Uppsala Hydrocarbon Depletion Study Group for further details.  The "peak oil" formula developed by Dr. M. King Hubbert has been on target for all major oil producing countries.  Take a look at how it works? The Hubbert Peak for World Oil.  Folks, please read these documents.   It is extremely important.   Some of this information references reports that are not yet in the public domain.

The article about Saudi Arabia triggered my instincts to consider a couple of other issues.  The Republicans selected George W. Bush as their candidate for President of the United States.  He the son of a former President who made his fortune in Texas oil, but who himself lost his opportunity to do the same because the oil in Texas peaked in the early 70's.  A man who understood oil peaks since there was no more oil industry for the son to make his own fortune. 

Then there was Dick Cheney chosen to run as Vice President.  He being the former CEO of Haliburton, an oil industry services corporation.  And according to my research, sure enough back in the late nineties, Cheney as the CEO was giving speeches to industry leaders warning about the peaking oil reserves around the world.  He stated that the U.S. economy and Americans were facing a terrible crisis in the near future. "By some estimates, there will be an average of two percent annual growth in global oil demand over the years ahead, along with, conservatively, a three-percent natural decline in production from existing reserves."?  "That means by 2010 we will need on the order of an additional 50 million barrels a day."  Which is six times the daily production of oil out of Saudi Arabia today. 

Cheney also warned that the oil industry needed to seriously begin research on alternative fuels and to begin implementing them as quickly as possible.  It is no wonder that the Republicans picked him up as the Vice Presidential candidate.  In addition, it is quite understandable that George W. Bush will not take Cheney off his ticket as VP.  Bush would be lost without Cheney in such a crisis. 

The only other obstacle the Republicans had was getting into power to handle this crisis.  Well we all know what happened in Florida.  And then later in the Republican influenced Supreme Court.  It is obvious that the Republicans were willing to use any tool to be in the White House.   It doesn't take much imagination to realize that they considered the situation serous enough that they must secure their economy before other western nations realized the severity of the depletion of oil.  Then, of course, the next step was to formulate a convincing political strategy to go to War with Iraq to position the U.S. for continued oil supply.  But even though the U.S. has positioned itself in the Middle East to have some influence in the oil producing countries in that region, it is very possible that the reserves may be much less than they had hoped.  

Just how bad a situation are we in?

Other indications that the crisis will happen sooner rather than later:

As soon as Arnold Schwarzenegger was elected as Governor of California passed legislation to begin building hydrogen gas stations up and down the California coast to service hydrogen cars.  Does have inside information not available to the public?

GE just announced that they have signed a deal with the European Economic Union to begin immediately to build hydrogen gas stations to service hydrogen cars throughout Europe.

The world stock exchanges have become especially sensitive to any oil industry news, causing much volatility in the markets.

The price of gas at the pumps has been steadily climbing this past couple of years.

Apparently the U.S. has established eight new military bases north of Afghanistan on the Caspian Sea.  I have not been able to confirm this. 

After reviewing all of the data, it is not difficult to understand why France, Germany and Russia were extremely unhappy with the U.S. incursion into Iraq.  France and Russia were already heavily involved in the existing Iraqi oil fields, and these countries including Germany certainly would lose their influence over that supply not just in Iraq but in all of the Middle East.  They would need to compete with the U.S. to fill their needs, which could be much more difficult if the U.S. had military bases in the Middle East.
 
All of the documents I perused stated that there is good chance that many of the oil producing countries have overly inflated the numbers on their oil reserves.  And according to some industry experts, the numbers given for reserves included oil that is too expensive to get out of the ground.  There is just not enough pump pressure.  In other words, these countries have already reached their peak oil and are in the phase of depletion.  Thus the situation could even be worse than they think.

There are even other factors that make the crisis inevitable.  China's escalating needs for oil to fuel their mammoth economy are expected to rise 30%, which by some estimates will take up 10% of the world's oil output.  Both Japan and China are rapidly trying to position themselves for Russia's eastern oil reserves.  This is a recipe for conflict.  Read this article:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10714-2004Jun27.html  Japan is completely oil dependent for its economy and is very worried about China's growing consumption.  Also China has been aggressively trying to establish its presence in the Middle East.  Thus you can understand why China was against the U.S. going into Iraq. 

Although major oil companies around the world have been pouring billions of dollars into the search for new oil fields, only small patches have been found.  So although world oil usage continues to rise, no new resources will meet increasing needs. 

So how could this crisis affect ordinary citizens?

Think about it.  Our whole society is based on oil.  Our food supply is delivered by thousands of trucks to the supermarkets.  Electrical generators use oil.  Our homes are heated by oil or gas.  Gasoline and oil keep our cars running.  Much of our clothing is made from oil derivatives.  Water filtration plants use fuel to pump fresh water to us.  Sewage plants use pumps to keep the cities clean.  Manufacturers use oil and fuel for the machines that produce goods.

Just coming up with hydrogen cars is not enough.  It is anybody's guess how expensive these alternative cars will be.  How many ordinary people will be able to afford to purchase one?  Also even if a new mode of transportation is found to get people back and forth to work, what will the workplace be like without sufficient electricity?  We know that windmill farms are beginning to spring up across North America.  Yes even Canada has sprinklings of these white windmills.  But the assessment has been one of disappointment in the trials.  They just do not generate enough electricity even for small communities.  The only alternative is nuclear generation, and it takes years to get them online. 

Apparently fuel cell locomotives are being developed for the military and for commercial use.  The U.S. military is also testing fuel cell buses.  However, there is no way that this new technology could be implemented to meet our modern society's needs by 2006, 2008, or 2010.

So what does this all mean?  It means that our government's have known the life cycle of the global oil fields since the 1950's and have ignored the need to address our fuel supply.  Our governments have failed us.  They have known that the supply of oil was not infinite.  They knew our western civilization was based on a depleting resource.  They knew our way of life had a tenuous hold on stability based only on oil supply.  But they chose to pass the buck on to the next government in power to do what was necessary to meet this crisis.  Now it is a new century and all information points to not just a growing energy crisis, but a crisis that is almost upon us.  If all of the information that I found is correct, your family and mine are in for a rough time in the near future.  It is time for us to pressure our governments to get off their fat xxxxx and take control of this situation.  We the taxpayers elect these people and pay their fat salaries.  It is time they did their job to protect our way of life.

You must check out this website.  This is what the experts are saying.  http://lifeaftertheoilcrash.net/

Publisher and Editor of Raspberry Xpress  The People's Ezine.

Karen Boyer is a writer who lives in Ottawa, the National Capital Region of Canada.  She has a deep background in business and has watched with concern the substantial changes to the Canadian and American political environment.  She is concerned how those changes have impacted on our democratic rights and on our lifestyles and how the eroding of our rights is ever increasing.  Thus Raspberry Xpress was born.  Karen empowers the average person through this interactive ezine and through the Raspberry Community Center.