Saudi Oil Declining?
Here's a report on warnings being spread concerning indications that the Saudi oil reserves may be reaching their end. Unfortunately, a jaded U.S. public - for whom such dire warnings were a staple in the middle to latter 1970s, and have since become more a matter of pop cultural kitsch and camp - could easily choose to ignore it as nothing more than an excuse for profiteering by the oil producers and their cronies. The simple, inescapable fact, however, is that such ancient reserves are a finite source - they will be depleted - it's all a matter of timing. That the Saudis and other nations for whom oil is their primary, even sole, source of income would try to hide signs that the end is coming, while getting the most for their product and investing as much of that money as they can in more enduring assets such as real estate and investment in the defense industry of the U.S. (a gold mine in an age of a never-ending War on Terror), should surprise no one.
It was known for at least fifteen years that a coming (now arrived) industrial and consumer market revolution in China, among other places, would increase demand for petroleum radically. That this also meant a more rapid depletion was implicit in the deal, though it has been quietly ignored by many.
I continue to be too pressed for time to try to figure out what specifically to do about any of this, but I wanted to at least lay it out on the table in front of myself in the hopes that I might ultimately come up with something more useful than "I knew this was coming."
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