Oil optimism relying on fudged statistics

[marmar]

from Asia Times:


Oil optimism relying on fudged statistics
By Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed


Headlines about 2012's World Energy Outlook (WEO) from the International Energy Agency (IEA), released mid-November, would lead you to think we are literally swimming in oil.

The report forecasts that the United States will outstrip Saudi Arabia as the world's largest oil producer by 2017, becoming "all but self-sufficient in net terms" in energy production - a notion reported almost verbatim by media agencies worldwide, from BBC News to Bloomberg. Going even further, Damien Carrington, Head of Environment at the Guardian, titled his blog: "IEA report reminds us peak oil idea has gone up in flames."

The IEA report's general conclusions have been echoed by several other reports this year. Exxon Mobil's 2013 Energy Outlook projects that demand for gas will grow by 65% through 2040, with 20% of worldwide production from North America, mostly from unconventional sources. The shale gas revolution will make the United States a net exporter by 2025, it concludes. The US National Intelligence Council also predicts US energy independence by 2030.

This past summer saw a similar chorus of headlines around the release of a Harvard University report by Leonardo Maugeri, a former executive with the Italian oil major Eni. "We were wrong on peak oil," read environmentalist George Monbiot's Guardian headline. "There's enough to fry us all." ...................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/OA18Dj01.html

[xchrom]

1. Du rec. Nt

[bemildred]

2. Sounds about right.

Might get through this year before it pops. We loves us some Ponzi economics and bubbles.

[NEOBuckeye]

3. Re:

Americans have always had a soft spot for snake oil salesmen, and oilmen period. We love being swindled.