A Twist question on Peak Oil?

[serryjw]

We always talk about Peak Oil and how it will effect US>.Now how is it going to effect several countries and millions of people that have nothing else EXCEPT oil as a resource to sell? How are these people going to survive in a few years when the %^*() hits the fan?

[ColonelTom]

1. Scarcity drives up prices

Eventually they'll run out, but they'll make a killing in the meantime, unless the demand dries up first. I'm not holding my breath for that, though.

[n2doc]

2. The ports debacle is a sign of this

Dubai doesn't have as much oil and gas as the other gulf states, so they have concentrated putting their profits into buying other industries. When the oil runs out, we will find that the Oil states will own much of America...

[serryjw]

3. Have not though of that

Do you really think that the Ports sale has to do with oil running out for Dubai? WHY would Bushit care? The Royal Family of Arabia are his buddies

[brokensymmetry]

4. OPEC faces economic disaster.

Oh, they'll get more per barrel, sure; but as depletion worsens, the cost of extraction goes up a bunch. Take Gwahar (hmm...maybe that's the wrong way to put it...). It now has a 55% water cut, as I understand it. So they have to pump 7 million barrels per day of seawater in, and then they must separate the seawater that comes out.

Add to this that the Saudi population, and the costs of supporting that population, have burgeoned.

We like to think of the Middle East as being rich. Some of their leaders are; but the vast majority aren't. In fact, even in Saudi Arabia, there are lots of poor people (Saudi Arabia Exposed : Inside a Kingdom in Crisis (Hardcover)
by John R. Bradley).

So, as oil peaks and their net income declines, I suspect you'll see bloody revolution. Iraq may have lit the fuse to a much greater problem.

Not good....

[serryjw]

5. You expressed exactly what I was trying to say

They are pumping water in, the are facing huge depletion issues and they do have millions that are not rich except for a few in the royal family. This could become another HUGE problem when extraction reaches a level when it makes no sense to drill any more.....this may not be too far off.