How to push the oil levers in the wrong direction

4dsc

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Tue Aug-21-07 06:57 PM
Original message

How to push the oil levers in the wrong direction

http://energybulletin.net/33715.html

How many times have we heard we just need to find more oil as if that would resolve the problem..

By now, it should be clear to everybody that we are facing some problem with oil production. Facing a problem, the normal reaction is to do something about it. If crude oil is becoming scarce, the first reaction often is, "where can we find more of it?"

We find a good example of this reaction in a recent a paper by Tony Megg titled, “The third trillion barrels of oil: the three steps to finding them”. Megg recognizes that there is a problem even though he doesn't mention "peak oil". He says that we have already extracted approximately one trillion barrels of oil. Another trillion forms the remaining known reserves. But we can find more; a third trillion barrels. Megg says:

So where do we look for the third trillion?
I think there are three main areas:

- We can get more out of what we have already discovered.
- We can find more of what we have already got, and
- We can diversify the sources of supply by using different feedstocks.
What Tony Megg is telling us, basically, is “let’s not lose our time with vague theories such as peak oil. Instead, let’s be practical: what can we do to find more oil?” It sounds like a good idea; but is it, really? Actually, Megg may be providing us with a good example of "pushing the levers in the wrong direction". Seeking for more oil may not be the right answer to the problem

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bbinacan

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Tue Aug-21-07 07:19 PM
Response to Original message

1. Not oil but natural gas

I live in the Barnett Shale area of Texas and they are using new technology to extract known deposits that couldn't have been done in 1981. They tried back then.

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screembloodymurder

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Tue Aug-21-07 08:10 PM
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2. The best way to find more oil is to eliminate waste.

All others rely on an element of luck. E.G. we haven't discovered a mega oil field in years what makes you think we weren't looking?

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AlecBGreen

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Wed Aug-22-07 10:50 AM
Response to Reply #2

4. p.s.

The best way to find more oil is to eliminate waste.

Yup. Less is more.

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The2ndWheel

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Wed Aug-22-07 11:21 AM
Response to Reply #2

5. How do you eliminate waste?

By using energy. It takes energy to eliminate the waste from using energy. Plus some of the energy that you use to eliminate the waste will also be lost. If that process keeps going, eventually you'd be using more energy trying to stop the wasting of energy, than actually using the energy. Even then, all that energy being used to stop all waste will also lose energy.

We can't eliminate the waste. It will catch up to us at some point.

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Kolesar

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Wed Aug-22-07 01:34 PM
Response to Reply #5

6. I can leverage a tube of exterior latex caulk to great waste-eliminating advantage

Just give me a leaky window frame for my metaphorical fulcrum.

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AlecBGreen

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Wed Aug-22-07 10:49 AM
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3. I have a feeling

there are few/no big finds left on the scale of Ghawar. What WILL come about is new technology to profitibly extract smaller and smaller amounts of less desirable crude. We're scraping the bottom of the barrel but we keep inventing better spoons.

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htuttle

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Wed Aug-22-07 02:35 PM
Response to Original message

7. People who describe 'peak oil' as a vague theory lack a basic grasp of physics

It's a finite resource. One day, it will run out. Before it runs out, production will decline. These are simply extrapolations of the basic laws of physics.

Sure, there's the question of WHEN production will peak and then decline, but to deny that it ever will is like saying that faeries are responsible for things falling to Earth instead of gravity.

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