It’s truly astonishing to me how hard it is to get otherwise highly educated and informed people to engage with the concept of Peak Oil.
We’ve got mountains of data at our fingertips, and yet one of the most common responses to it all is something along the lines of “well, humans will think of something.”
Maybe, but hope alone is not a good life (or investment) strategy.
One of the most important lynchpins in the entire tottering global edifice of debt is Saudi Arabia’s oil supplies and output. For some unknown reason, Saudi Arabia has been plowing higher and higher amounts of money into upstream oil & gas production but has been producing less and less.
How many explanations do we have for this?
1 – Saudi Arabia has been wasting money
2 – Saudi Arabia has been patiently investing in new production which is being kept in reserve
3 -Saudi Arabia is at or past Peak and is fighting declines by investing furiously and then telling the world it is cutting back production on purpose.
If it’s 3, my dear friends, we are in trouble.
The US in particular now sports 31% of total world debt, but only 6% of the world’s population making it one of the most highly leveraged countries out there. A continual stream of affordable oil, in sufficient quantities, is absolutely necessary to keep the whole thing going.