Huh? Since the start of 2008 in China alone, refined oil products and crude oil imports are up 17% and 12% respectively.

From the US government's Energy Information Administration:
PD

Maybe, but i am speaking from a 'world' level. 17% in China still represents a small number worldwide. Maybe in 20 years, it will be different, but for now...

Oops! I'm 0.6% off. My memory banks must be failing me since I'm usually right on the money! Anyway, now you have the 'real' number and not the media hyped version. No one turned on a spiggot and is consuming all the oil like they want you to believe.

-S

That site I quoted from also said 38% of future demand growth worldwide will be Chinese. That is not small at all.

PD

See my edited above post. By the way, i see 17% increase in America's use as enormous. China and a 17% increase is no where close to the same scale. That is what I mean.

-S

Exactly. It's the trading system in general that is causing this, especially in the US.

First they ran up the tech bubble, overinflated everything, and caused a disaster. Then they did the same thing to the credit/housing markets. Now they are working over the energy sector. I wouldn't be surprised to see the energy "bubble" pop in the near future.

Question is, what market sector will they assault next?

You hear what you want to hear.

They have revised it to 1.8%. And that figure is an ANNUAL increase. See these two documents:
http://www.iea.org/Textbase/npsum/WEO2007SUM.pdf
http://www.iea.org/textbase/papers/2007/fs_china.pdf

Some selected points:
-Shortly after 2010, China will surpass the United States as the largest energy consumer.
- Around 2015, more new vehicle sales will occur in China than the United States.
- Energy demand will have grown some 55% worldwide by 2030.
- Before 2025, India will overtake Japan as the third largest importer of oil.

Also, keep in mind, these were written when $75/barrel was considered "relatively high".

PD

1.8% is still, less than 2% a year. Still though, you are right. If what you are saying is true, then China is not as 'small' as I envisioned. Thanks for the info.

-S

They are rapidly becoming less "slave labor peasant economy". And when you have a population four times the size of the US that is going to want to own a car the same way US families do now (not to mention other energy demands)... If people think Iraq right now is bad, there are some wicked things to come.

PD

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

Seriously. I don't expect the prices to change at all except to go further up. They're going to milk the price gouging as much as they can... and they can milk it quite a bit given a lot of countries' absolute dependence on oil like here in the US. They're going to continue to gouge and gouge.... And get richer and richer..:nope:

You can bet your life they would if they did find that it had oil.:roll:

Lets see! Nope! Doubt it! return on investment sucks big time! Especially since coal to gasoline can be made for $50 a barrel, and we have enough of it to make gas for the next 250 years!

Now if the place were litttered with heavy metals like gold and platinum, or Uranium, might be a different story.

-S

4 billion (reservoir) divided by 20 million (consummation per day) is 200 days.

And we already have seen repeatedly what damage one tanker alone can do to an area as big as half a state. Biotopes are compley and sensitively balanced systems that do not need catastrophic impacts but small ticks to the baance in order to already disbalance the system. Now, I do not want to say anything pro or contra Anwar drilling, since I do not know it, I just want to show that your argument for Anwar is not really helpful.

The problem is that oil fields are not being sucked empty until no drop is left, because there is a threshhold beyond which it is no more profitable for companies to suck out the oil from the earth. The less oil there is, the more difficult it becomes, and the more investements and technological efforts must be taken to win less and lesser oil. For many fields in the world, this treshhold level is around 30-50%. I am simplifying, but it is not that there are only subterranean caves filled with an ocean of liquid oil, only some part of an oil field is made of this. The greater part of the substance is stored inside sediments and porous rock holding it like a stone-sponge. you can imagine the difference when remembering the difference between drinking a glass of water with a straw, and needing to suck it out with effort from a piece of hard rubber-sponge, or needing to suck it out of a hard fruit. to get the most out of it, you sooner than later need technical kitchen helpers, fi you do not want to eat the fruit all together . When the most obvious reservoir of liquid oil is being sucked out, then it becomes difficult and less and lesser profitable to suck out the remaining oil hidden in the seidment and porous rock. Theoretically, there is plenty of oil left. but our economic system currently is not equipped for getting it, from an economical/financial perspective, because the investements are higher than the profits. That's the reason why many fields are given up when being depleted to around let's say 40-50%.

Skybird - they said the same things about the Alaskan pipeline - oh its gonna disrupt the wildlife! The end result is, the wildlife loves it since even the damn caribou's huddle up to the pipeline for warmth during the winter!

Biggest farce on the planet! Actually, I take that back, Global Warming is, but still.

And the oil there is probably much larger, but no one knows until they go take a look!

-S

Oil, shmoil, all i know is i wish this really existed:

http://www.futurehi.net/images/mrfusion.jpg

http://journeyhomeburke.files.wordpr.../mr-fusion.jpg

:rotfl: :rotfl:

Extra oil pumped? Won't do squat.