Venezuela Oil Min: Global Oil Capacity At Its Limit

[bemildred]

CARACAS -(Dow Jones)- The world's oil producing countries have no spare oil production capacity left and some oil producers have even seen output decline, Venezuelan Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez said during a television interview Tuesday.

"There is a production capacity that is at its limit in all oil-producing countries," said Ramirez.

"There is an important decline in non-OPEC countries, in the North Sea there is a decline of at least 200,000 barrels a day," added Ramirez.

Ramirez said a two-month oil strike in Venezuela that shut in output at the world's fifth largest exporter for two months created the conditions for the current price rally. He added that the war in Iraq is also responsible for the record prices this year.

DowJones

[phantom power]

1. End of the party is coming.

All the tylenol in the world isn't gonna take the edge off that hangover.

[progressoid]

2. "War in Irag"? How can that be?

Heck, Wolfowitz and Rumsfeld said the war would pay for itself. :shrug:

[barb162]

4. Thanks for reminding me of that! I forgot Wolfie

saying that. For that blunder alone, he should have been laughed off the planet. So they gave the W.B. job to him instead for his great forecasting skills. Headache

[StrafingMoose]

12. Yea...

He'll probably have a better foresight at the head of the World Bank :D

[grauch]

3. higher prices coming

So as the production capacity stays level (or goes down), and the demand continues to rise, we should see even higher prices for gasoline!

[despairing optimist]

17. Don't forget rationing. All the money in the world can't buy what's not

for sale. Gas, heating oil, and eventually natural gas will have to be rationed. The days of unlimited use of fossil fuels are nearly over, and plans are being drawn up for rationing.

So even when gas goes to $10 or $15 a gallon, priority will have to be given to emergency vehicles and shippers of essential goods. Rationing heating oil will mean colder homes, offices, public spaces, and showers. Power plants will likely get priority for natural gas supplies, but there could be rolling blackouts.

I can hardly wait. ;-)

[whistle]

5. Gas prices in my area of Orlando FL hit $2.559 per gallon for...

...regular unleaded, a 10 cent jump over the weekend. This was a take of a dozen stations within one mile of my home. A Citgo station which still had $2.399 posted was out of regular and was selling off its other two grades at $2.599 and $2.699.

I predict $3.00 by labor day weekend. I know it is getting close to that in the tourist attraction areas of Orlando and around the airport area.

[JDPriestly]

6. Pity the poor fools who are buying new SUVs.

Some of them will end up living in them in a few years.

[reprobate]

19. Oh, but the big SUVs will be in demand when the crunch comes.

They'll make wonderful greenhouses for the foods we'll have to grow at home.

[Gregorian]

7. Horseless no more.

The really really bad part about all of this is that petroleum gave us the ability to support SIX BILLION. Does anyone know what I mean? If there were just a few people, it would be one thing. But now we are helpless. Worse than that. We are standing naked in the cold.

By the way, I wonder how much fucking oil we used in Iraq. A billion gallons? I'll bet it's much more than that.

Had we been frugal and smart..... Oh nevermind. Buy a horse.

[HadItUpToHere]

11. a billion gallons is a LOT of gasoline...

i doubt that it's approached that number.

[Gregorian]

15. One might be surprised. A 747 uses 5000 gallons just to take off.

C5-A, or equivalent, transports are continuously being shuttled around the globe, to keep troops clothed and fed. Tanks, boats, trains, AND peripheral support in the US, such as ammunition manufacturing, all are related. It's immense. I'll bet a full ten percent of what happens in this country is related to defense. A billion gallons might not be far fetched. It's a total and complete sin. What we could have had.

[daleo]

22. It could be getting close to that.

One billion gallons of gas, at 5 miles per gallon would give 5 billion miles of travel. Roughly 150,000 military personell are in Iraq, and have been there for nearly three years. That amounts to about 33,000 miles of transport equivalant per budgetted position over the span of the invasion (11,000 per year) and occupation (i.e. as if every soldier was driving their own car). It seems like a lot, but:

- Iraq to the U.S. is probably a 20,000 mile round trip, generally by air, which burns a lot of fuel. Most of these positions have probably had people rotated in and out a dozen times (with leaves and changes of actual people).
- Military vehicles aren't known for being fuel efficient.
- The military is constantly patrolling, and the supply lines for most of its needs are very long (again, as much as 10,000 miles).
- Bases use a lot of fuel, especially with the electrical power situation being unreliable.
- Military aviation and naval support require a lot of fuel.
- Every bullet, bomb, vehicle, etc. that has been expended in Iraq took fuel to manufacture, and that should be added to the total energy cost of the war.

Whatever the real number is, you can bet its big.

[SnowGoose]

8. Maybe it will help America's cities.

As I see it, American cities have been bled for decades by cheap oil. People with good jobs just up and bugged out of the crowded cities, creating endless suburbs - which, of course, ruined the tax base for the cities, making them even crappier.

Last year, my wife and I moved into town (avoiding a 30 minute each way commute for each of us). I walk to work every day now. Avoiding the commute was a real consideration for us.

I think more and more people will be doing that, and eventually, if people actually *live* in the cities, they will want to become involved in the political/social infrastructure. It'll also boost the viability of cultural institutions like museums, simply because people will be there.

There are silver linings to the coming pain.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

10. And all the poor folks living in the cities will be forced to the edges

or the suburbs/country due to the rising cost of real estate driven by all the suburbanites returning to the city.

The class gaps are just going to keep widening and widening and widening as the oil prices climb.

[Delphinus]

28. Absolutely correct!

I've said this on some of my other posts about peak oil, but the chasms between the classes, and we're not talk race or culture here, are going to be bigger than we can imagine.

[progressoid]

18. The problem with many American cities is the spread of suburban sprawl

in the last few decades. This structure is not conducive to economical transportation.

We've been under the delusion that we can just keep expanding and expanding that it's going to take a lot of restructuring to fix the system. I'm a little pessimistic about the the possibility of reversing this trend.

[ticapnews]

26. On the contrary, cities will suffer...

Transporting food to the cities is going to be an astronomical cost. Who will be able to afford a $10 head of lettuce or a $7 cucumber?

Luckily, there are lots of expendable people around.

Ready for some Soylent Green?

:sarcasm:

[hadrons]

9. so it is Dumbya's fault .....

Ramirez said a two-month oil strike in Venezuela that shut in output at the world's fifth largest exporter for two months created the conditions for the current price rally. He added that the war in Iraq is also responsible for the record prices this year.

And who was working to make that strike happen???

[wli]

13. Get to where public transportation is well-developed

The US is too spread out, and too dependent on automobiles. It's not going to go well here.

[bpilgrim]

14. naw, we just need to do more DRILL'n - it's really just an OIL co plot

to JACK u & me :sarcasm:

DECLINES in PRODUCTION with INCREASES in DEMAND = PEAK OIL & generational war over the remaining RESOURCES.

peace

[sintax]

16. this has to kicked up-we are on the brink

[Bhaisahab]

20. KICK! n/t

[Theduckno2]

21. I agree, here's a kick!

[SKKY]

23. Didn't I read somewhere recently that Cheney made an official visit...

...to the oil sand region in Canada? Supposedly, there's enough oil there alone to provide for the worlds needs (yes, taking into account increased demand based on current trends) for something like 55 years? Of course, it's a monster to refine and takes more energy to create than it produces.

[Nihil]

24. Just part of the shell game

Your last sentence shows how the second sentence is a lie intended (by
the pro-oil groups not you!) to mislead.

"What shortage? There's barrels of oil still in the ground!"

[SKKY]

25. Damn it Nihil! I can hope can't I????

Fuckers like you always gotta spell out the truth so everyone can see it!!!!! I took the Blue Pill for a reason!!!!! :)

[gasperc]

27. well if this guy let the cat out of the bag

he'll be dead by the end of the week and Jerome a Paris is the fortune teller of the year. Although he's posted alot of greatfacts and science for awhile now here and at dailykos