Russia has peaked w/poll

Whenever peak oil is discussed, the talk always turns to the Middle East.  I've never heard anyone mention Russia, which seems strange.  Russia holds the world's largest gas reserve, 2nd largest coal reserve and is the second largest oil exporter.  They export 70% of their oil.  They are also the 3rd largest energy consumer in the world.

Therefore, when I read this story in Pravda, it stuck me as strange that I haven't seen anyone else pick it up.

Oil reserves at Russian seas to bring $5 billion to the budget
05/13/2005 13:16
Sea shelf developments can save the Russian oil industry

I'll get to the point here...

Within 10 years, Russia may be having to dig deep in their pockets to survive.

Russia may run out of its profitable resources of hydrocarbon raw materials by 2015. Oil and gas resources will be left on sea shelves only. Yury Trutnev, the Russian Minister for Natural Resources, believes that the nation's oil and gas companies need to start developing oil and gas deposits as soon as possible. The Minister for Economic Development and Trade, Gherman Gref, objected the idea of establishing a special state-owned company for the development of sea shelves.

Russia will have to start looking to the sea to get their oil. They just don't have the know how to do it themselves.

Minister Trutnev believes that it will be possible for Russia to avoid a sudden reduction of oil extraction after the year 2010 only with the help of sea shelf developments. About 75 percent of Russia's ground oil fields are being currently developed. Furthermore, they are almost 50 percent exhausted.

According to Trutnev, the development of Russian shelves will depend on the level of world prices on oil, whereas world prices will also depend on Russia's extraction at sea shelves as well. Russia needs to struggle for world markets. The struggle, however, is impossible without the development of new oil and gas fields.

I remember the old USSR, and they have come far, but for them to admit that they are behind the times and need help to keep their oil economy going amazes me.  Pravda seems to have become open and now we are stuck with the old Pravda style media in the US.

Minister Trutnev said that the geological exploration of the Russian continental shelf started in 1993. Russian companies, however, lack 20 years behind foreign enterprises from the technological point of view. The minister believes that Russia should therefore attract experienced foreign companies possessing unique equipment for the development of oil and gas fields at sea. The Ministry for Nature added, though, that one should make a list of strategic developments, at which the participation of foreign investors will be restricted. In addition, the ministry suggested the establishment of the state national committee, which would guarantee the market control of the state over the developed oil fields. Such companies currently run their activities in Norway, Indonesia, China, Vietnam and Syria.

The fact that Russia is talking about this problem seems amazing.  The link tells the rest of the story.  If the 2nd largest exporter of oil admits they have problems which will be here faster than I've ever heard mentioned, what will this do to the price of oil?  The market seems to think that oil will always be around.  Russia admits they don't have the technology to go after the oil on the sea shelfs and need help, but I would think this will be an expensive venture that will run up the prices of oil. I doubt if they have a clue as to how much oil is out there.

It wasn't that long ago that the news was all about Russia's oil boom and all the new fields they were finding.  Everyone said that they would be able to take up the slack if the Middle East slowed down.  Well, it looks like that isn't going to happen.  I read somewhere else that Russia had stepped up production, which is speeding up the process of depleting their oil.  With the prices as high as they are, and the economy like it is in Russia, they need all the money they can get.

Too many people scoff at peak oil, but ask Texans about the oil bust.  We used to be a state that was lit up with oil rigs.  Seeing derricks lit up at night and listening to the rigs running was part of my life.  You can't imagine how weird it was to sit outside and not see those lights anymore or hear silence in the country.  Mother Nature has given us a lot, but even she can't wave a wand and make new oil sprout up when we've used it all up.  

•  Mojo will be appreciated

  I finally figured out how to do the boxes.  Happy Days.  One little typo has been keeping me from being able to do this.  I hate typo's.  I also embedded a link for the first time.  Another typo.  God, I don't know why I keep transposing letters.  Guess it's age.

  by CD in TX on Fri May 13, 2005 at 09:28:08 PM PDT

  •  Nah, it's lexic.

    You know: dis-lexic,dat-lexic,does-lexics.

    by nargel on Sat May 14, 2005 at 12:11:16 AM PDT

•  You say nobody mentions Russia, here's more

  nobody mentions the Caspian Basin either

  the pipeline through Afghanistan, you know, the one that the freepers claim Michael Moore is crazy to mention, I knew about it BEFORE 9/11

  anybody who studies history can tell you that Baku was Hitler's objective in the summer offensive of 1942

  Hitler was trying to capture the caspian, george bush's family cronies were trying to secure a pipeline through Afghanistan, and nobody who preaches about PEAK OIL ever mentions Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan or Kazakstan

  I think there is a lot of oil under the east coast of the Caspian Sea, and George Bush doesn't want you to know that

  by knowthings on Fri May 13, 2005 at 10:31:52 PM PDT

  •  A lot, yes, but not enough to bring back

    old times.  

    It's a fortune for whoever gets to pump it and sell it.  

    But as far as the oil production estimates go, it's alreay factored in.  

    by gaianne on Sat May 14, 2005 at 09:18:39 PM PDT

•  World's 3rd largest exporter, Norway, at peak

  The Norwegian government pared its forecast for 2005 oil production, including natural gas liquids (NGL), to 3.2 million barrels per day from an earlier projected 3.3 million bpd. The new figures came in a revised national budget for this year.

  The oil figure was cut due to continued delays in restoring the 130,000 bpd Snorre field to full capacity after a gas leak shut it in late 2004 and technical glitches on a few other fields, the energy ministry's spokeswoman said.

  "Oil production is expected to remain at this level over the next years, but then gradually decline," the Oil and Energy Ministry said in a statement with the revised 2005 budget, which showed a large oil-backed surplus.

  http://www.aftenposten.no/english/business/article1039168.ece

  by dougr on Sat May 14, 2005 at 06:43:45 AM PDT