[Robert A Cook PE]

My BIL has had many very serious, very fundamental problems in Indonesian oil fields in fire fighting, pollution control, basic field operation, and (above all) bureaucracy “requesting” bribes to get approvals through for eqpt, people, hiring local companies, supplies, etc.

[R W Reactionairy]

I agree that there are a lot of above ground factor that serve to limit production.

What’s your take on the prospects of continuing to produce oil at the rate of 86 million barrels per day [or to actually to boost production significantly?]

The discovery curve [peaked in the late 1960s], the age of the existing giant oil fields [the things I have read about Ghawar, Burgan, Danquing don’t bode well] and the rather ugly decline curves in the North Sea and Cantarell have caused me to conclude that if the peak isn’t here, it will be soon.

I see a lot of promise in ultra heavy oil tar sands in Canada and Hugo Land, but that stuff won’t be anywhere near as much fun for the producers and the flow rates won’t be anything like what we have experienced for conventional crudes.