This could well be the case and I have suspected for a while that in a world that IS abundant, are we really on the verge of peak oil? (yes, even at the rate that we do consume).. From that perspective of greed and foundation in iniquity, wouldn't it make so much sense to keep any potential/ actual major oil discoveries underwraps whilst panic and mania about the end of oil circulate like the multiplication of bacteria- to the benefits of corporate greed and shareholder delight.. I think so and thought the following (something I found), is quite interesting..

Lo these many years ago my wife worked as a geophysicist for a major oil company. Her job was taking the seismic data and turning it into maps which the bigwigs would then use as the basis for oil lease bidding. Human beings don't do this any more; her job was given to a computer in the mid-1980's. A lot fewer people now see the raw data she saw.
And having seen a lot of that raw data with her own eyes she has told me that Peak Oil is basically b*llsh*t, and that there is enough oil in the Gulf of Mexico alone to power the entire world for at least a hundred years. The majors have done just enough exploration and drilling to make sure we have the technology to extract this oil when it becomes both economical and necessary. It's already economical during a speculation pulse such as we're currently in, but she also thinks the US is deliberately pursuing a policy of depleting the rest of the world first.

This isn't shale oil, it isn't wind farms, and it isn't hybrid cars. It's the sweet stuff our refineries use best and it can be extracted in massive quantities with existing technology. It is quite feasible to quintuple our production within a couple of years. There is a lot of idle hardware sitting around in Texas and Louisiana, just waiting to be started back up and pointed south.

The reason this oil doesn't show up in the Peakers' numbers is that we haven't aggressively explored out there. As my wife has told me, "basically the further out you go the more you find." But until we actually send the seismic surveys out there and drill some more wells, that oil is invisible. And there are good sound Machiavellian reasons for keeping it that way, not the least of which is that everybody in the industry makes more money when panic is holding the speculation bubble up.

Peak Oil is nothing more than a psych-out in a global poker game. Several players think they have winning hands, but as cards are revealed their position weakens. The US has four cards to a Royal Flush and everybody else is running around wondering if we will make any hand at all, or somehow pull the last ace we need out of the deck at the last second. What they don't know is that the last ace isn't in the deck, it's in our pocket. We're just encouraging everybody else to bid up the pot before we whip it out and pull the rug out from under them.

Peak Oil is just our way of saying "bid it up, people, you've got us, if we're lucky we might get a straight or a flush, and your two pair will nail us. Heh heh heh. Don't go believing in no aces, only an idiot believes that ace is going to come to us." And it's gonna be a shock I tell you when we flip that ace over and it turns out we control the world's entire oil supply.

I agree with everything you say. America is sitting on lots of oil especially in Alaska.

On top of that the oil corporations have been telling us for decades that we would have hit peak oil a long time ago. The latest was during the 70's energy *non* crisis. Carter and the oil corps. were saying we'd hit Peak oil by the end of the decade (1970's)

And even later back there were a few times when we were supposed to hit peak oil by the 30's and 50's and what have you.

Peak oil is definately a confirmed hoax. The Oil corps just love screwing around the average Joe.

The real existing problem though is the whole Iran thing. Middle East is a powder keg ready to blow which is not a good thing for the control and supply of oil from there.

It's going to be absolute insanity when oil starts getting over 100 maybe even 200/ barrel. Lets just hope and pray that the people wake up in these troubled times so that we can finially be the change we want to see in this world. Clearly our leaders, multinational corporations and governments do not care for the well being of Johnny Citizen and we can't expect them to come up with any sort of viable solution except war and more war.

USA is already a blessed country, by history and nature. Why do you think US must also be super lucky, the only country to have that amount of oil “for at least a hundred years”, a "Saudi Arabia" under the sea? Why this can not happen to some other part of the world for example in Siberia which is vast? I can think only the following options. Other people are idiots and can not find similar seas of oil under their nose, or there is a multinational conspiracy of many governments to hide the extra oil, or there is not such thing as “hidden” oil in the world. Of course we can accept that God blessed only USA, with this unique monumental gift but we can use the good metaphor of a poker game reversed.
Sure there is a possibility that there is oil in the Gulf of Mexico, in such great quantity, but the odds of this to happen is just as low as for a poker player to come up with a royal flush. So I would bet on the player with the two pairs. Also there is always a chance someone to try to cheat, but I would suggest that he looks like trying to take others player’s cards and not searching in his pocket…

Remember that only about 40% of the worlds' oil is actually publicly traded. The rest is nationalised. So the oil majors whivh you are talking about don't really have much control over the global price, infact they can do virtually nothing about it. OPEC are the ones with the power and I could well imagine OPEC limit output to raise the price, lets face it, there is no transparany so who knows?

My Norwegian sister works for Schlumberger as a petroleum Geologist on various rigs in the North Sea, which she says has definitely peaked. I'm sure the same can be said about many other fields around the globe.

It amuses me when people say peak-oil is a hoax because you have exactly no concrete evidence to support your claims. You are saying that Hubbert -- who incidentally worked for a fat-cat oil company -- was talking BS?

Please show me a counter-example that is actually proof he was wrong and America hasen't peaked!!

I'm not saying I'm a 100% believer that oil will peak soon, I just think it is incredibly arrogant to blame it all on the oil companies when you obviously have no idea what you are talking about.

Besides, the worlds' oil _will_ peak one day, it's just a matter of time. Lets face it, the volume of the Earth -- which is constant -- cannot hold an inifnite amount of oil, lol.

Oh and one more thing; there are no oil supply problems at the moment. The price is high because of the Iran situation; traders are buying up lots of commodities and once again the oil majors have _nothing_ to do with this. I think it's time for some basic economics revision guys.

[edit on 4/22/2006 by InTuneToDoom]

[edit on 4/22/2006 by InTuneToDoom]

What about the NASA discovery a few months back that oil was abiotic?

The idea of fossil fuels is absurd when your drilling at extremely deep depths. I can't see herds of Dino's all finding their way to Saudi Arabia and dying on one spot.

It's all about the control of the earths resources right now. There is still a heck of alot in Northern Canada and Alaska but I doubt the Oil Corps want that for the public market. I'm sure all the oil in Alaska and what have you is strictly meant for the future plans of the military.

The real nature of Peak Oil is the control of it. (Blackgold stranglehold - Jerome Corsi)

We're really in for it now. Since nothing has been done to change the politics of oil and the dependance on oil Johnny Citizen is going to pay for it. It's just really sad that literally hundreds of engine designs to give 150 MPG have been massively suppressed. Some inventors have even ended up in jail in certain cases.

So is this a) disinformation b) information c) erroneous information d)partially correct information or something totally different? I believe that I believe in peak oil but now I'm not sure. But then do we ever really know anything?

Even if we had so much oil in America, it still ain't Saudi Arabia. Not to mention the environmental concerns where there are groups who would not allow the U.S. govt to approve the drilling in some areas for the oil corporations, especially congressmen and senators. Not to mention that America is not the only country to consume oil, should remember that India and China are becoming highly developed countries where people have jobs and their demand for luxury similar to America's lifestyle like for example buying cars also brings the price up.

you don't seem to provide any sources in this article accept the opinions of your own wife. now i'm not saying that your wife is dishonest but the conclusion she seems to have come to about the state of oil reserves in the gulf of mexico are easily contested. firstly it would be nice to know when you decided the US government was suppressing extraction operations in the region , especially as oil companies like BP have been instrumental in securing deep sea oil platforms as early as 2004 and many other platforms had already been built in the regions shallower waters before this point (see the july 2004 issue of NatGeo). secondly the idea that there are "over 100 years" of oil left down there is more than a little optimistic, other sources have put it as low as "2 years supply for just the US" (see www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net) and as the demand for fossil fuels is constantly growing at a prolific rate it is almost impossible to predict the rate at which they will be used up, there are too many factors. finally i must question why the US government would want to suppress the use of this reserve, as the biggest oil user in the world and one of the most dependent on oil imports why would they further this dependence by not using reserves on their own soil, denying themselves this advantage would further reliance on the opec nations and the middle east, an area with worrying security issues, a lack of democracy and a history of being fickle when given a position of power (look at the 1970s oil crisis and the role of opec in hiking up the price). if i am honest, i feel almost every argument in your article is flawed in some way, as much as i wish it wasnt so peak oil is happening (optimistic estimates put the peak at 2006-2008) and we need to be discussing why it isn't more of a public issue and finding solutions rather than wasting time attempting (and failing) to challenge the overwhelming evidence supporting the belief that the era of oil is very nearly over.

It is undeniable, we live in a closed finite system.

Knowing such an undeniable truth how can anyone postulate that there will never be 'peak oil'?

It defies logic and reason.