Friday, September 7, 2012

Our big oil daddy is running dry

http://blogs.aljazeera.com/blog/middle-east/saudis-may-not-have-oil-export-2030

"Saudi Arabia could be an oil Importer by 2030 - Saudi Arabia is the world’s largest oil producer (11.1mbpd) and exporter (7.7mbpd)," Rehman wrote.

It also consumes 25% of its production. Energy consumption per capita exceeds that of most industrial nations.
Oil and its derivatives account for 50% cent of Saudi's electricity production, used mostly (>50%) for residential use. Peak power demand is growing by 8%/yr. Our analysis shows that if nothing changes Saudi may have no available oil for export by 2030."

Well, where are we going to get our oil then?  We currently import about 1.5 million barrels of Saudi oil per day [http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/17/business/energy-environment/us-reliance-on-saudi-oil-is-growing-again.html?pagewanted=all].  Where will we find that much oil elsewhere?

Or, perhaps we could ween ourselves off oil and find energy elsewhere?  Currently South Dakota gets 22% of its energy from wind power, and there's plenty more potential than that.  We may as well start thinking about this now rather than wait for 2029.

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