by kingbobb » Fri Jun 13, 2008 10:00 am
Another the guys in the oil industry talked about was the reports you hear about how much oil is left to grab. What's left out of most of those reports are the cost cut-offs they use. Most of them make an assumption as to what people would be willing to spend in order to get to an oil reserve, which is based on expected the market price for oil. As you elevate the market price, you open up crude reserves that would be unprofitable at a lower price.
So when you hear someone say we'll run out of oil in 10 years, that's probably a conclusion reached based on oil prices staying around $80 a barrel. When you hear someone say there's hundreds of years' worth of oil left, they may not be considering market price at all.
As an example, we're seeing some of our airports leasing out their land now (against our regulations) to allow prospectors to drill for oil. Reserves that were loss investments 5 years ago are now worth millions.