NEWS: Saudi Arabia Claims 2 Million Barrel Per Day Surplus

With gasoline prices rising to $2.00 per gallon and oil prices hovering around $50.00 per gallon, Saudi Arabia has released a statement claiming that they have an untapped production reserve of 2 million barrels per day. Further they claim that there production capacity can be increased an additional 4 million bpd over the next several years and can be sustained well into the next generation.



With all this extra production and an apparently generational supply of such production why is there all the ruckus about depleted oil supplies? Further, why are prices so much higher than what we saw just a couple of years ago? Is it due to the political instability brought about by the war, or is it just price gouging by rich oil nation states? I am perplexed by the glaring difference between the “resources are running out” crowd and this press release. If Saudi Arabia is to be believed then the world should have enough oil to sustain itself well into the future and perhaps even into the next century. By this time we should be able to solve the fusion problem or create some other form of cheap efficient energy to supplant oil’s dominance.

It is possible that the Saudis are only blowing exhaust to calm the world’s oil markets but this seems implausible if in fact they are facing a dwindling supply. It is difficult to fathom why a nation that is facing a dwindling supply of their only major export would release statements meant to ease pressure on the price of their commodity.

Maybe the oil supply sky isn’t falling after all and the world won’t be ending tomorrow, unless global warming melts all the polar ice caps and floods the coastlines of the world and the Yellowstone supercauldera explodes after India is struck by a 2 mile wide asteroid. Yes, it is good to get a little good news now and again even if it is from the Saudis.

It is possible that the Saudis are only blowing exhaust to calm the world’s oil markets but this seems implausible if in fact they are facing a dwindling supply. It is difficult to fathom why a nation that is facing a dwindling supply of their only major export would release statements meant to ease pressure on the price of their commodity.

The key is political instability. If it turns out that Saudi arabia is lying then what do you think the people will do when all the cheap stuff runs out completely? Politics, politics, politics how much I hate it...

Note that they say

untapped production reserve of 2 million barrels per day

It takes a lot of work and time to get that black gold out of the ground, so knowing that they have untapped reserves will not bring the price of oil down...until these untapped wells are harvested, nothing will change.

Two million barrels of 'sour' crude that no one wants because of the high sulfur content that many refineries can't handle.

If people build more refineries that can process the stuff the price of oil might come down.