25 Comments on Oil and Gas – The Next Meltdown?

symmetry08 on Tue, 17th Mar 2009 1:07 am


those who doesn’t beleive oil is running out just remember discovery of new oil reserve as necessary to keep us going GONNA. Yes there will be new one’s, but in 30 years, you and me not gonna have cars burning gasolines. Because gallon will be about $7-10. You may say “well we will have new technology by then”. Well what is gonna move us so cheaply as natural oil? Battery driven cars?

weeboodeath on Fri, 24th Apr 2009 7:15 am


Resources exist to be consumed. And consumed they will be, if not by this generation then by some future. By what right does this forgotten future seek to deny us our birthright? None I say! Let us take what is ours, chew and eat our fill.

geir44 on Sat, 30th May 2009 7:28 pm


You cant compare stone with oil.

raptorkiller2k5 on Mon, 15th Jun 2009 7:39 pm


You’re mad. Saudis new fields aren’t isolate, both are supposed to maintain retrieval rate.

Maybe point to the fields in Central Asia. However we’re dealing with unstable, Talibanized regions that’ll likely collapse very soon. Not to mention, one that involves Chinese, Indian, Iranian, and Russian interests.

florgat91 on Sat, 27th Jun 2009 2:35 pm


is this guy a doomer ?

peakmoment on Mon, 29th Jun 2009 3:37 am


Matt is an optimistic realist. He sees a lot of challenges in the future of fossil fuels — and as an Energy Investment Banker, he knows his stuff. He has done the research (and wrote Twilight in the Desert). But he’s also working to create renewable alternatives, like a wind power project off the coast of Maine.

jpd1235 on Mon, 10th Aug 2009 2:57 am


The electric economy is a fantasy. Its not going to happen. The natural resources to replace the automobile fleet does not exist. The natural resources to create enough batteries for us to keep on ‘happy motoring’ dose not exist. The natural resources to generate the electricity to charge the batteries dose not exist. Solar, wind? Gimmie a break! They will never contribute more than a drop in the bucket compared to oil energy.

peakmoment on Mon, 10th Aug 2009 5:03 am


I agree — we’re not going to replace the fossil fuels with electricity not at the scale we’re using energy now. Only after we powerdown to a very significant extent.

snoxon27 on Tue, 15th Sep 2009 7:06 pm


I like how many people here point to other countries
for sources of oil. Are we going to yet another war to compete with growing populations like China and India?

christo930 on Wed, 23rd Sep 2009 7:34 pm


I disagree. There is no shortage of renewable energy, the problem is that we really don’t have an especially efficient way of capturing it. For example, imagine the potential of fusion for electricity generation. Matt Simmons is involved in a wind project which he envisions replacing home heating oil AND creating liquid ammonia, which he says can replace motor gasoline.

peakmoment on Mon, 28th Sep 2009 12:48 am


We both have named limitations for renewables right NOW: scaling them up to the level needed (since they are much less efficient than fossil fuels), capturing, storing, distributing, creating infrastructures for all of these, and modifying or building new equipment to use them. Thinkers like Michael Klare suggest that renewables can do what we need on a far more efficient usage scale, but we lack the investment, etc. in time to make a smooth transition.

christo930 on Mon, 28th Sep 2009 1:00 am


I agree with you here. But we still need to work on it. Bad times are coming if we don’t get a good replacement to the oil we are going to lose to peak oil.

peakmoment on Mon, 28th Sep 2009 4:46 am


Absolutely we need to keep working on it. But serious peak oil scholars like Richard Heinberg & Michael Klare don’t see any way we can fully replace the energy-density of oil. Looks pretty clear we can’t keep up these consumption levels…not just of oil, but many other resources. Ocean fisheries~ Fresh water~ Topsoil~

christo930 on Mon, 28th Sep 2009 8:23 pm


We have lots of free electricity, so long as it’s at night. The generators take a long time to come up to speed and so if we charge our cars at night, we won’t need to add capacity or upgrade the grid for decades. Obviously battery material and the diesel machines that mine it are a problem… Yes, soil depletion, fish depletion, copper… It goes on and on, and mining them is heavily dependent on fossil fuels. People don’t understand how important FF really are.

christo930 on Mon, 28th Sep 2009 8:32 pm


We have quite a bit of excess electricity generation capacity at night. Electricity usage drops greatly at night but they can’t lower the generation at night because it takes days to bring the generators up to speed. We could add millions of cars to the grid as long as it’s at night. Cities are a huge problem for electric cars because so few people have a garage or even an available spot outside of their house. The batteries might be a problem. Simmons says we can use ammonia instead of gasoline

Flagstaff12 on Tue, 19th Jan 2010 6:11 pm


Even if true, human caused climate change is irrelevant. Peak oil is the real challenge facing the human race. Sky high oil price will do more for the environment than emmisions cuts will ever do.

CandianBear on Tue, 23rd Feb 2010 12:56 am


@Flagstaff12 I agree- the find it increasingly frustrating that climate change is sucking all the oxygen out of the space to really get across the implication around peak oil. I hope the hell matt is wrong about the potential for how quickly this could all unravel. this is scary stuff cheers

CandianBear on Tue, 23rd Feb 2010 1:07 am


thid stuff is so much more compelling that climate change- it is coming from a man who you can trust and he is well respected within the business community and his numbers are transparent— i keep banging on about how climate change is sucking all the oxygen from the very serious threats we face from the nature Matt is talking about here….. Even though he is going on about the worst case scenario – it is wise to understand that these scenarios are on the table! just wild!!!!

speculawyer on Fri, 26th Feb 2010 3:57 am


Peak oil may make climate change worse. We could run low on oil and then fire up coal liquification and use more tar sands . . . both more CO2 intensive. :-/
We need to move transportation to electricity and go nuclear, wind, and solar.

kardentyrell on Thu, 4th Mar 2010 8:50 pm


Efficiency of renewable energy is becoming a luxury. If we don’t mass produce these things NOW…it’ll be too late.
Compare it to WW2 …the germans made the very first jet engine fighter, a truelly magnificent piece of engineering and aviation, and it would dominate the skies. However it was near the end of the war, and too late to make a difference.

christo930 on Fri, 5th Mar 2010 1:22 am


Even with an all out, WW2 style effort (putting every resource the country has into the problem), it will take decades for a transition and cost trillions of dollars. America simply doesn’t have that kind of money and we are borrowing beyond control for other thins right now. NOTHING is going to even begin until a major shock hits the country,

kardentyrell on Fri, 5th Mar 2010 11:02 am


Priority one is clean water, if that business is self sufficiently powered, then the worst part is over. Otherwise people will have to move away from their homes in search of it. Second would be food. Having national announcements to make your own garden that can feed and sustain your family. De-urbanisation, breaking down parts of the city not used and make it a local food plantation for gardenless housing. Then heating for the housing. The rest is just luxury.

christo930 on Sat, 6th Mar 2010 2:13 am


DE-urbanization? Urban centers are the most efficient way of living we know of, it’s the suburbs that are so bad. City life requires far less energy per capita. Food can be grown just outside of the city I think re urbanization will be the trend for this century if we don’t blow ourselves up.

CyberAthletethefirst on Sun, 21st Mar 2010 10:59 am


Anyone notice how long it has been?

KURTNDAWN on Thu, 25th Mar 2010 1:07 pm


this guy needs to realize not all work (in fact not any real significant work) is done from a computer moving decimals around trying to fuck people out of money. the work done that keeps this country and economy moving is industrial work, manufacturing, farming, etc. – show me how to stay home and do this from my fucking house!

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