so when the Saudi start realising their spigot of unlimited money is starting to run out, i wonder how they'll behave. My bet is, invasion forces. I can hope though that they'll push for space industry
Their army is not in a good shape.
The Biggest Saudi Oil Field Is Fading Faster Than Anyone Guessed
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Re: The Biggest Saudi Oil Field Is Fading Faster Than Anyone Guessed
#12Good. The quicker it fades, the quicker the US can stop supporting this brutal, vile regime and its disgusting human rights practices and culture. Also, the more pressure there will be to switch to a non fossile fuel energy source. It can't happen quickly enough.
I agree with everything except for the word can. The US already very much can support stopping that regime. They prefer not to.
Re: The Biggest Saudi Oil Field Is Fading Faster Than Anyone Guessed
#13I don't get it. The article states that the Ghawar is "the world’s largest conventional oil field", and "can produce a lot less than almost anyone believed", and is in fact "able to pump a maximum of 3.8 million barrels a day -- well below the more than 5 million that had become conventional wisdom in the market" The saudi "12 million b/d capacity" was known from before, I assume, so isn't the surprise that other fie…
Maybe the issue is the production fading, rather than the reserves? Any amount of oil in the ground doesn't do much for you if you can only extract it very slowly.
Re: The Biggest Saudi Oil Field Is Fading Faster Than Anyone Guessed
#14wow this is quite shocking! this means that we have reached peak oil quite possibly some time ago....OR for the cynical, the Saudi might be trying to pull a fast one by inflating the prices through scarcity...but that seems unlikely here.
What's more curious is that the US reported it as 5.7million barrels in 2004!
Re: The Biggest Saudi Oil Field Is Fading Faster Than Anyone Guessed
#15Less CO2 released into the atmosphere I guess? I always wonder about news like this. Is it wrong to assume that the company knew about this years ago already and made the rational decision not to tell everyone until the last minute? And how long have they known?
The speculation on whether Ghawar can yield a lot less oil than most people think has been around for more than a decade. People used to worry about this stuff a lot more, back when it wasn't clear whether heavy oil and shale would be able to fill the gap (not to mention renewables).
Re: The Biggest Saudi Oil Field Is Fading Faster Than Anyone Guessed
#16I don't get it. The article states that the Ghawar is "the world’s largest conventional oil field", and "can produce a lot less than almost anyone believed", and is in fact "able to pump a maximum of 3.8 million barrels a day -- well below the more than 5 million that had become conventional wisdom in the market" The saudi "12 million b/d capacity" was known from before, I assume, so isn't the surprise that other fie…
Pumping rate tails off as the extractable oil drops, so the fact that it's dropping off faster than expected in their biggest oil field is notable.
Re: The Biggest Saudi Oil Field Is Fading Faster Than Anyone Guessed
#17I don't get it. The article states that the Ghawar is "the world’s largest conventional oil field", and "can produce a lot less than almost anyone believed", and is in fact "able to pump a maximum of 3.8 million barrels a day -- well below the more than 5 million that had become conventional wisdom in the market" The saudi "12 million b/d capacity" was known from before, I assume, so isn't the surprise that other fie…
Maybe the issue is the production fading, rather than the reserves? Any amount of oil in the ground doesn't do much for you if you can only extract it very slowly.
Generally extracting oil slowly is a good thing, it increases the total amount you're able to pull out of the ground. Increasing immediate flow means having to do things like pumping water into the field to increase pressure, and getting an increasingly watered-down mixture back out. Things that involve a pretty huge increase in complexity.
Re: The Biggest Saudi Oil Field Is Fading Faster Than Anyone Guessed
#18So this is the bond prospectus that's replacing the planned float of Aramco?
Wasn't the plan basically to divest/diversify away from oil. This doesn't seem to be doing that, so what's the point?
Re: The Biggest Saudi Oil Field Is Fading Faster Than Anyone Guessed
#19So 52 years worth of reserves assuming maximum capacity of 12mm barrels harvested a day. Now I am no mathematician but given a 1-2mm per day average and what will likely become a declining demand for oil over next 20-30 years, they have half a millennia worth of oil lying around. This well seems like a non issue to me.
"what will likely become a declining demand for oil over next 20-30 years"
based on what?
Re: The Biggest Saudi Oil Field Is Fading Faster Than Anyone Guessed
#20so when the Saudi start realising their spigot of unlimited money is starting to run out, i wonder how they'll behave. My bet is, invasion forces. I can hope though that they'll push for space industry
They're investing in solar, who knows if it'll pan out. Throwing money at a problem works to a certain degree, and there's no question they have a sizable reserve to throw around.