Oil Shock: No Shortage for 100 Years–UPDATE
At $20 a barrel, there’s a major world oil shortage. At $50 a barrel, there’s enough oil to last well into the next century, regardless of increasing usage. Therefore, the ability of oil to sustain a price much above that level for very long is fictional. This is why Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez intends to ask OPEC to set a minimum price for oil of $50 a barrel. Venezuela’s deposits of extra heavy oil in the Orinoco are the reason. Until recently, the have not been counted among the world’s oil reserves because they were too expensive to exploit. But at $50 a barrel, refining them and selling them is a profitable enterprise. The reserves are truly massive. In fact, the U.S. Department of Energy believes that they exceed the reserves of the whole Middle East.read more