Since 1860, when petroleum was first “discovered,” a debate has raged about the origin of petroleum and other hydrocarbons. Apparently, in the West, we take it for granted that petroleum, coal, natural gas, methane etc., are in fact “fossils fuels,” literally the decayed and pressurized remains of previous epochs of organic, living matter. The term used here is “biotic,” literally, from living matter. The view of those who consider petroleum biotic is that oil and other “fossil fuels” are non-renewable. Because there is only so much fossilized swamp sludge down there, when we are done using it up, it’s gone forever.
An opposing view is that what we call “fossil fuels” are in fact abiotic, non-biological in origin. The abiotic crowd believes that, rather than being the buried remains of ancient life, petroleum and its hydrocarbon relatives are products of processes that occur deep within the Earth’s mantle. The further extension of this view is that these abiotic hydrocarbons are in fact renewable, that a vast and nearly inexhaustible supply of hydrocarbons is produced continuously by the geo-physical processes at work deep within our planet.
For support, the abiotic crowd points to the recent discoveries of our inter-planetary scientists. Based on the inter-planetary probe missions of the last ten years, it has been proven conclusively that what we call “fossil” fuels are present in abundance on other planets and moons in our solar system.
See this (Scientists Perplexed by Discovery of Methane on Mars):
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/04/02/MNG4I5VJSC1.DTLAnd this (European Scientists Conclude Seas of Methane on Saturn’s Moon Titan are Abiotic in Origin):
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/ap_huygens_update_050127.htmlThe abotics argue that discovery of hydrocarbons on other worlds proves that the same resources on Earth are produced by abiotically, by geophysical processes. A comical side-bar debate takes the form of the biotic crowd conceding the possibility of abiotic hydrocarbons, but claiming that here on Earth all hydrocarbons are biotic not abiotic.
With this background, consider the next step in the story.
Russian scientists from 1940-1970, cut off from much of the outside world by the curtain of Soviet classicism, evolved a very different form of petroleum geophysics than we did in the West. This was in part due to the fact that the USSR had access to very limited domestic oil reserves at that time. Strategically, the Russians could not afford to believe in “fossil fuels.” Rather than accepting the prevailing Western notion of biotic hydrocarbons, the Soviets invested heavily in ultra-deep drilling technology in an effort to pursue domestic oil production based on abiotic theories.
Supposedly, the Soviets succeeded. As of 2004, Russia is the largest producer of oil in the world, having surpassed Saudi Arabia, even though Saudi production, for the time being, is still on the upswing.
See the following:
http://reactor-core.org/peak-oil.htmlNow, the next step in the story starts to get a little confusing (to me at least).
In 2000, Saddam Hussein took the then extraordinary step of pricing Iraqi oil sales in Euros instead of Dollars, and, at the same time, flooding the world’s market with cheap oil priced in Euros.
For reference, the rest of the world continues today to price oil sales in Dollars. The effect of Dollar oil pricing is that nations that purchase oil do so in Dollars, creating a global demand for Dollars as hard currency and leading to vast foreign reserves of Dollars in export countries. As Dollars pile up outside the United States, they must be invested somewhere. The only truly safe place to invest Dollars is in US treasuries, because Dollars invested in US treasuries carry no foreign exchange risk. US treasuries are, of course, the way in which we finance our national debt. Our national debt in turn floats our economy. In essence, Dollar oil pricing in an oil-driven world enables the “American way of life” based almost completely on debt financing enabled by world Dollar oil pricing.
So, when Saddam Hussein began pricing oil sales in Euros, he was making the greatest challenge yet to Post World War II American financial and political hegemony. According to some, the strategic US rationale for the invasion of Iraq can be explained almost entirely on this basis: ending Iraqi Euro-based oil sales and restricting the flow of Iraqi oil into global markets.
Now ponder this article:
http://www.globalpolicy.org/socecon/crisis/2003/1010oilpriceeuro.htmI am by no means done with this boondoggle; however, here are the next points to consider:
* The US has invaded Iraq, purportedly to end once and for all Saddam’s challenge to Dollar oil-pricing and to curtail the unrestrained flow of Iraqi oil onto world markets
* The Russians have proven abiotic oil production and have become the world’s largest oil producer/exporter
* The Russians are threatening to price Russian oil in Euros
* Influence-peddlers in the US have begun to promote the idea of Peak Oil, an idea the natural extension of which is global conflict, resource wars, and high oil prices
* Quite possibly, the entire notion of Peak Oil is a hoax
So, what is really going on?
* US government debt stands at $8 trillion dollars
* US consumer debt (credit cards, mortgages, etc.) stands at nearly $10 trillion dollars
* Total us debt stands at $34 trillion dollars
* Approximately 25% of US debt is held by foreign purchasers
* More than 50% of the US currency supply of Dollars is held outside the US
* In other words, more that 75% of the value of the US Dollar exists outside the US
What would happen if world oil sales were priced in Euros instead of dollars?
In this light, Peak Oil becomes the premise for a continuous war between the United States and other nations for ever dwindling resources. However, rather than fighting to keep oil available at a low price (thus sustaining an oil-based American way of life), the US is fighting to sustain our debt bubble economy by keeping oil expensive and priced in Dollars. Joe Vialls claims in one of the articles above, “Peak Oil has been fabricated to disguise America's increasing need for crude oil, and its imminent inability to pay hard cash for the product. Put simply, America is going broke fast, and Wall Street wishes to blame someone else before the angry Militias appear with their locked and loaded weapons.”
More importantly, Peak Oil becomes a smoke screen for a variety of economic national security objectives:
* dampening of Chinese economy
* funding of next phase of US domestic oil production (based on ultra-deep drilling)
* propping up of US dollar and US national credit