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Chris Nelder’s Notes on the
2008 ASPO-USA Peak Oil Conference

500+ attendees!   Read The Oil Drum Reviews:

• Day 1: http://www.theoildrum.com/node/4556
• Day 2: http://www.theoildrum.com/node/4560
• Day 3: http://www.theoildrum.com/node/4569

1. Production and Prices
2. The OPEC Meeting
3. Iraq
4. Russia and the West
5. Briefs

Quote of the Week

• "It would be unseemly of OPEC right now to officially cut production. But a quiet understanding to trim back production might be the order of the day."
  -- Adam Sieminski, chief energy economist at Deutsche Bank

Ending the federal moratorium that prohibits drilling off the east and west coasts has grabbed headlines as a way to lower gasoline prices. Around and around, like bumper cars at an amusement park, opponents and proponents of leasing the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) bash into each other.  But as ASPO-USA contributors have repeatedly noted, drilling the OCS will not materially impact oil supplies for a decade or more. The U.S. Energy Information Administration forecasts that these areas might provide 200,000 barrels/day by 2020-around 2 percent of our current consumption, or as much as we use every 15 minutes.

Drilling holes into the earth is an audacious act with an ancient history. Many centuries ago the Chinese were drilling wells 1,000 feet-deep. In the 1860s, as marine mammals grew scarce, American whalers came ashore and began harpooning the planet, hoping to strike "rock oil."