Independent UK: Oil: A global crisis....How are our lives going to change...to cope w/ $200 a barrel

[marmar]

Oil: A global crisis

The Iraq War means oil costs three times more than it should, says a leading expert. How are our lives going to change as we struggle to cope with the $200 barrel? Geoffrey Lean reports

Sunday, 25 May 2008



The invasion of Iraq by Britain and the US has trebled the price of oil, according to a leading expert, costing the world a staggering $6 trillion in higher energy prices alone.

The oil economist Dr Mamdouh Salameh, who advises both the World Bank and the UN Industrial Development Organisation (Unido), told The Independent on Sunday that the price of oil would now be no more than $40 a barrel, less than a third of the record $135 a barrel reached last week, if it had not been for the Iraq war.

He spoke after oil prices set a new record on 13 consecutive days over the past two weeks. They have now multiplied sixfold since 2002, compared with the fourfold increase of the 1973 and 1974 "oil shock" that ended the world's long postwar boom.

Goldman Sachs predicted last week that the price could rise to an unprecedented $200 a barrel over the next year, and the world is coming to terms with the idea that the age of cheap oil has ended, with far-reaching repercussions on their activities.

Dr Salameh, director of the UK-based Oil Market Consultancy Service, and an authority on Iraq's oil, said it is the only one of the world's biggest producing countries with enough reserves substantially to increase its flow.

Production in eight of the others – the US, Canada, Iran, Indonesia, Russia, Britain, Norway and Mexico – has peaked, he says, while China and Saudia Arabia, the remaining two, are nearing the point at of decline. Before the war, Saddam Hussein's regime pumped some 3.5 million barrels of oil a day, but this had now fallen to just two million barrels. ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/oil-a-global-crisis-834023.html

[joshdawg]

1. I will say this again:

As long as we are in Iraq, the price of oil will continue to rise to stratospheric levels.
Does bush care? Nope. bush is the sleaziest of humans. Cheney is right next to him.

[Stuart G]

2. Let's See $200 a barrel, = $6.50 - $7.00 a gallon.. We are getting there.

In cities where public transportation exists, people will take it. (are taking it now) Some cities will demand public transportation systems.

..Car pooling will become very common. My guess consumption of gas will decline in U.S. SUVs will become a rich man's toy. So many other changes..

The U.S. love affair with cars could end..

[marmar]

3. "The U.S. love affair with cars could end."

Could .... and should.

[Altean Wanderer]

4. This is a fantastic article on the Independent

If only peak oil received more press like this in the US!

[marmar]

5. The Independent, the Guardian.....put the U.S. publications to absolute shame!

Of all the "free" countries, the U.S., along with Italy, has the most embarassing and pathetic "independent media" around.