No such thing as peak oil! Saudi Arabia is investing in solar and nuclear to be 'green'. Yeah. That's the ticket! FT.com / Companies / Middle East & North Africa - Saudi to develop solar and nuclear power Saudi Arabia will be burning most of its oil production domestically in less than 20 years if current consumption patterns persist, a senior official has warned. In response, the authorities plan to cut reliance on fossil fuel and develop an alternative energy mix, including atomic and solar sources, as rising local demand could dramatically curtail the kingdom’s ability to export oil.
It would seem to me that they are realizing that: 1) oil is not a long-term solution so we'd better come up with something that will sustain us. Good thing we have a lot of sunshine. 2) consuming our own commodities is not a good market strategy.
They have an abundance of sun too. Of course there will someday also be peak sun, so I guess they'd have to go nuclear then.
nice until you get to peak uranium. You do need to remember that there is a finite amount of oil in saudi arabia, and what they don't use they can sell Opec quotas include domestic use, they can sell more if they use less. It's hard to build a nuclear bomb if you can't hide it with nuclear power. With Iran likely to get a bomb soon, the saudis probably want one too. After all Saudi arabia encouraged iraq to invade iran and 1 million people died. Not that I think iran will use their future bomb on the saudi's but the saudis might think so. Now with the SA ties to al quida the us should be scared of a nuclear saudi arabia. Scared enough yet. Note the oil prices dipped this week because the saudis thought prices were getting too high so hinted they may increase opec quotas. When prices get too high people conserve and demand drops something the saudis do not want.
Peak oil is indicated when we begin to shift away from oil. The stone-age didn't end because we ran out of stones. .
Note that Saudi does not have the technical infrastructure and educated scientists/engineers in place to have their own nation build a bomb anytime soon. However, they are in a great position to buy just about anything they want.
Uranium would run out in about 100 years, but Earth's supply of thorium could meet all energy needs for thousands of years. Whether it is cheaper than wind, Solar or geothermal is TBD.
Precisely the point that DBDers don't get. Saudi Arabia has lots of sun. It's also a popular tourist destination for Muslims. They also have lots of aluminum which could explain the desire for more electricity capacity.
When Peak Sun happens, won't have to worry about Peak Uranium as the Earth will either be incinerated or have the oceans vaporized. It will be time to boldly go where no one has gone before...
I couldn't find some of the more detailed stuff but here is one article http://www.forbes.com/feeds/afx/2006/03/28/afx2629000.html - Nothing is imminent but saudi arabia is very afraid of Iran getting the bomb. It was a joke. I doubt we are running out of nuclear fuel any time in the foreseeable future. I was making fun of the we are doomed, we are running out of everything crowd.
Don't doubt ... like oil usage - you can calculate the amount of possible places you can mine, and the current rate of ussage to come up with a number. At current rate of consumption (from nuke war machines to smoke detectors to electric generation and everything in between) we are presently looking a peak uranium around 2040 ... realisticly . . . yet the swing may be any where from 28 - to 100 years out . . . turning how optimistic / pessimistic one is, and how fast we continue to increase usage: [ame=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peak_uranium]Peak uranium - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame] http://blogs.wsj.com/environmentalc...whats-going-to-fuel-all-those-nuclear-plants/ So . . . it's a non issue if you're old enough to not care ... but since oil production will peak long before, maybe mining / processing / decommissioning costs of uranium will be way too prohibitive to manufacture nukes any more - anyway. Maybe that's the good news ... in a depressing sort of way. hwell:
Hill you are completely forgetting about substitution as evnow and richard pointed out. In 2125 we will have Mr. Fusion anyway
WikiLeaks cables: Saudi Arabia cannot pump enough oil to keep a lid on prices | Business | The Guardian Whoo-hoo! 40% less than previously reported! Well, I mean, Saudi Arabia has been publicly reporting the SAME AMOUNT of reserves for decades. Phenomenal! Discovering EXACTLY as much oil as they pull out of the ground.
Along the lines of peak oil, in the comments of Gas for $4 a gallon? - San Jose Mercury News there's quack in the comments that makes probably the most ridiculous claim I've ever heard about US oil supply: All I can say is wow! I'm sure he's right and the Department of Energy is more than 2 orders of magnitude off in terms of US oil reserves... I'm sure a good % of monstrosity class SUV drivers (who don't actually need them) know nothing about/don't care about the world's oil supply, reserves, competing demands, consequences, oil as it relates to national security, etc. but geez, perhaps a bunch fall into the above camp.
The SUV drivers will care when it hits $5/gallon. Of course, it will be everyone's fault but their own when it happens, and they can't afford to drive their SUVs and those 4x4 pickup trucks with the absolutely shiny beds and ne'er a drop of mud on them. It'll be right back to assaulting and battering service station clerks who only work there for their owners' fraction of a penny cut of the fuel price making it so expensive. I have a feeling that Saudi Arabia will continue to report 'over a century of reserves' until their wells draw up nothing but stinky salt water.
little blurb in morning's business section - Chevron Corp - 2008 - 10% exploratory drill were dry, no oil/gas found 2009 - 35% " ......... 2010 - 43% " ............. Many of the dry drills were in Asia Don't know all details, but that's what paper said.
In 2010 Chevron was successful on 12 of 21 wells, in 2009 20 of 31 wells. It is the statistics of small numbers, and sometimes you drill in geology with a smaller chance because it still has a large payoff. Chevron's costs in a delayed GTL (gas to liquid) have nearly tripped from original plan. The thing about hubert peak oil, is it is peak conventional oil. This can peak because unconventional reserves like oil sands and GTL come on line. GTL, which converts NG to gasoline and diesel may actually have a lower environmental cost than oil sands, but eventually if we don't get off the oil, we will be producing the stuff from coal. The Saudi's have 4.5 Million in excess production capacity that easily offsets the 0.5 Million in Libya in the short term. There is not a shortage of oil right now, only fear that we may soon have one, and this fear is real.
Thanks! After some quick digging, I found Chevron's drilling failure rate increases - Inside Bay Area.
