Aljazeera article says Saudi's might have peaked

From: <glennmorton@entouch.net>
Date: Wed May 11 2005 - 07:53:17 EDT

The fascinating thing to me is that the OPEC president has at times said they didn't have any more spare capacity. That would include, therefore, Saudi Arabia.  Here is the quote:
 

Oil output close to capacity, says head of Opec By Shawn Donnan in Jakarta
Financial Times; Jan 21, 2004

Picture (Metafile)       
Opec countries are producing oil at "near maximum capacity" as a result of "leakages" above its demand was expected to decrease in the second quarter of this current agreed quotas, according to the oil cartel's president.

Increasing production now made little sense, Purnomo Yusgiantoro, Indonesia's energy minister, said yesterday, since year with the end of winter in the northern hemisphere.”

And Al-Naimi, the Saudi Petroleum Minister has been quoted as saying that They have little control on the markets:

 

"This is a fair price to consumers and producers. But, really, Saudi Arabia and OPEC has limited control on world markets," said Al-Naimi."

http://www.menafn.com/qn_news_story_s.asp?storyid=48881

accessed 4-30-04

 

The only way this can be true is if they don't have the spare capacity they claim they do.

  

Then yesterday, the Saudi's seem to have officially raised their reserves to a number beyond belief.  They now say they have 361 billion barrels of reserves with possible additional oil in place of 200 billionbarrels (meaning one might get another 60-100 billion in reserves).  And they haven't announced a single major find (1 billion barrel plus field) much less 120 major discoveries.  I think they are a bit deluded.  Here is what they said yesterday in Paris:
 
"Estimating his country's proved, probable, and possible reserves at 361 billion bbl, al-Naimi said Saudi Arabia has "aggressive exploration program in place to assess the vast areas" that are relatively unexplored. Additional undiscovered resource potential, he said, is at least 200 billion bbl of oil in place." Doris LeBlond, "Saudi production growth detailed in Paris oil summit" Oil and Gas Journal, May 2, 2005.


The problem with this is that the areas which are largely unexplored are granitic. Their numbers are simply unbelievable.

 
 

Received on Wed May 11 07:55:42 2005

This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.8 : Wed May 11 2005 - 07:55:43 EDT