Posted on 12/09/2016 12:24:30 PM PST by Lorianne
Yes, it’s true. Middle East net oil exports are less than they were 40 years ago. How could this be? Just yesterday, Zerohedge released a news story stating that OPEC oil production reached a new record high of 34.19 million barrels per day. To the typical working-class stiff, driving a huge four-wheel drive truck pulling a RV and a trailer behind it with three ATV’s on it, this sounds like great news.
Unfortunately for the Middle East, this isn’t something to celebrate. Why? Well, let’s just say, there’s more to the story than record oil production.
While the Middle East oil companies were busy working hard (spending money hand over fist) to produce this record oil production, their wonderful citizens were working even harder to consume as much oil as they could get their hands on.
In the past 40 years, Middle East domestic oil consumption surged more than six times from 1.5 million barrels per day (mbd) in 1976, to 9.6 mbd in 2015. This had a seriously negative impact on rising Middle East oil production:
According to the 2016 BP Statistical Review, the Middle East produced 30.10 mbd of oil in 2015 compared to 22.35 mbd in 1976. This was a growth of 7.75 mbd. However, Middle East domestic oil consumption increased from 1.51 mbd in 1976 to 9.57 mbd in 2015. Thus, the Middle Eastern economies devoured an additional 8.06 mbd of oil during that 40 year time-period.
The olive-green color in the chart represents Saudi Arabia oil production, while the orange denotes net oil exports and the red is their domestic consumption. In 2005, Saudi Arabia’s net oil exports were higher at 8.72 mbd versus 8.12 mbd in 2015. This was due to Saudi’s domestic oil consumption increasing 1.5 mbd in the past ten years.
Even though Saudi Arabia’s total oil production reached a new high of 12 mbd in 2015 compared to 10.9 mbd in 2005, its domestic economy consumed all of that extra increase, and more.
SNIP
With our oil production coming up, why shouldn’t we expect Saudi production to fall off...its about time.
The only thing they export is Oil and Terrorism
Last I heard there was an oil glut.
I paid the lowest prices for gas two weeks ago, I have paid since the 90s.
Where do we find all this hand wringers?
Fascist Globalists and Islamic Terrorist States face Bankruptcy.
There’s US, Russia, and Africa oil now. China’s going hard after Africa and we’ve been napping.
The ME’s days are rapidly dwindling as some kind of economic superpower due to their one-trick pony economy and cradle-to-grave welfare systems. Oh and there’s the general insanity their portion of the world exports that causes death and destruction wherever it goes...
Arab economies in trouble? YES! YES! YES!
One thing to consider - in Indonesia, certainly the population has grown a lot in 40 years, and indeed, there are more people on motorbikes consuming oil.
But in places like Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and UAE, yes, their population has grown as well, but are still small relative to their huge oil production, and I contend that much of this “domestic consumption” is in downstream, large-scale things like ethylene crackers, which produce plastics resins (which are then exported).
The US Economy will be fine. Prices may settle around 2.50 but Obama’s necessary 4.00 is a bunch of crap.
I cannot help the ridiculous left coast.
Fracking oil has disrupted OPEC to the point of oblivion for the US as far as I’m concerned.
We have more than they do.
"The new normal." Just a shrug from the POTUS and a "Hey, what can ya do?" Unbelievable that people accepted that crap.
It’s even more unbelievable how many liberals never heard it.
The HUGE difference is ownership. In the US the government could not spend most of the hydrocarbon bounty to fuel domestic welfare and political payoffs because the stuff was mostly privately owned or at least privately financed.
Fracking is mostly a US industry and occurs almost exclusively on private lands. The people who made the revolution should reap the rewards free from all calls to keep it here.
Never agree to restricting the production and selling of hydrocarbons. Even if it means we export it. Keeping oil free its the only way to keep the government from using it to turn us into a petrotyranny.
Now that the greenies have lost the Peak Oil scare and the AGW scare look for them to change course and try to regulate in the name of minimum prices, export restrictions, fair returns, etc. We could make a quick trip back to the 70’s regulations.
And the oil pays to export the terrorism.
Perhaps we will export oil down the road? Up to 800,000 bbl. might be extracted from a 1000 foot thick pay zone, extending a radial 80 feet from the well bore, if a new approach pans out.
http://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Can-Microwave-Technology-Compete-With-Fracking.html
Might be your intended target.
I am just a simple power guy with a decent memory. Batteries are my baby.
http://thebusinesstimes.com/firms-gain-jump-start-in-oil-shale-operations/
Other possibilities for the microwave technology exist—enhanced recovery from tight-oil deposits like the Bakken—and foster clean extraction from oil bearing sands. In other news, the recoverable for Green River Basin has also been upgraded to 2 trillion bbl.
The development of fracking and soon low-cost methods of extracting oil using microwaves could suddenly open up many supposedly uneconomic oil fields, including supposedly "tapped out" oil fields. That would increase the supply of crude oil and natural gas so high that the Persian Gulf states may no longer be able to compete. Indeed, right now there is such a ridiculous surplus of natural gas supplies that companies are now cheaply making motor fuels and motor oil from natural gas! (Indeed, the Persian Gulf country of Qatar is building facilities to turn their massive natural gas supply into both diesel fuel and gasoline--and they had planned that nearly 15 years ago.)
In short, Adam Smith's invisible hand just judo chopped the Persian Gulf economies at the worse time possible.
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