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“The Stone Age came to an end not for a lack of stones, and the oil age will end, but not for a lack of oil.

Technology is a real enemy for OPEC. Technology will reduce consumption and increase production from areas outside OPEC.

The real victims will be countries like Saudi Arabia with huge reserves which they can do nothing with – the oil will stay in the ground forever.”

— Sheikh Ahmed Zaki Yamani, Saudi oil minister (1962-1986), on July 25, 2000.

7 responses to “Oil Sucker”

  1. I’m confident an energy infrastructure switch to alternative sources (ie. wind, solar, fusion, fission, tidal, etc..) can be made. Of course I don’t have the wherewithal to speculate on the how, when and at what cost. What I am truly curios about is what can replace all the plastics and other petroleum based materials? Recycling? There are so many different types of materials, can they be effeciantly reprocessed?… etc.

  2. well, the switch has to be made – but of course it takes soaring oil prices to begin to make renewable energy more "attractive"… quite how we restructure our civilisation quickly around non-petroleum based products is a major question.

    even with a way to "replace all the plastics" and materials derived from it, it is not going to be easy to grow organic crops on the scale required without pesticides / fertiliser. transportation of essential supplies (quite apart from serial tourism) without petroleum also looms as a core issue.

    will demand for OPEC oil really eventually drop right off?

    are we not likely to see China, Russia or the US seconding some energy multinationals and attempting to open up / being prepared to fight over polar regions, to satisfy continued demand and neutralise increasingly expensive extraction costs?

    will advances in biofuels / nanotechnology offset the really dangerous scenarios in time, with widespread availability and implementation, at an affordable level?

  3. God, I hate hearing that quote. It’s sometimes used by people who are encouraging the development of new technology (as I assume it is being used here), but it’s usually used by folks who are trying to stay in power by assuaging people’s worries about whether they are going to have to change anything about the way that they live.

    Comparing the very real problems regarding future access to oil with "running out of stones" is reckless and stupid.

  4. Excellent quote. I wonder what engine that cylinder head is off?

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