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[goodcow]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/09/AR2005060900148_pf.html

Top Saudi Says Kingdom Has Plenty of Oil
By ANNE GEARAN
The Associated Press
Thursday, June 9, 2005; 11:32 AM

WASHINGTON -- Saudi Arabia has plenty of oil _ more than the world is likely to need _ along with an increasing ability to refine crude oil into gasoline and other products before selling it overseas, a top Saudi official says.

"The world is more likely to run out of uses for oil than Saudi Arabia is going to run out of oil," Adel al-Jubeir, top foreign policy adviser for Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler Crown Prince Abdullah, said Wednesday.

In a wide-ranging interview with The Associated Press, Al-Jubeir said relations between his nation and the Bush administration were strong but "the environment in which the relationship operates ... still leaves a lot to be desired."

He denied his country has any nuclear weapons ambitions, despite international concerns about a Saudi request to lower international scrutiny of its lone nuclear reactor.

He said he was "bullish" about the Saudi economy, which although based on the country's vast oil reserves has also diversified to include a galloping stock market.

Al-Jubeir dismissed speculation, including in a recent book, that the country was hiding the true picture of its oil reserves and that it may have far less than publicly assumed. He said Saudi Arabia has proven reserves of 261 billion barrels, and with the arrival of newer technology could extract an additional 100 billion to 200 billion barrels.

"We will be producing oil for a very long time," al-Jubeir said.

Saudi Arabia now pumps 9.5 million barrels of oil daily, with the capacity to produce 11 million barrels a day. The country has pledged to increase daily production to 12.5 million barrels by 2009, and the nation's oil minister said last month the level of 12.5 million to 15 million barrels daily could be sustained for up to 50 years.

High oil prices benefit the Saudi economy in the short run, but al-Jubeir said his nation wants a stable price that won't hurt consumers so much that they reduce their energy demands.

The problem for both the Saudis and the United States is what happens after the oil is pumped.

"If we send more oil to the United States and you can't refine it, it's not going to become gasoline," al-Jubeir said. The United States has not built a refinery since the 1970s, and other markets have similarly outmoded or limited refining capacity. Environmental concerns and local opposition make it unlikely new U.S. refineries can be built quickly, even with the current gas price crunch.

Saudi Arabia has partly stepped into the breach, with new refineries being built inside the kingdom as well as in China and soon in India, al-Jubeir said.

The country has also invested in gasoline stations, part of a strategy of "going downstream" from oil production to distribution, al-Jubeir said.

"We continue to do it, and we have one of the largest refining and distribution systems in the world," he said.

Ordinary Saudis remain deeply distrustful of the United States in the aftermath of the Iraq invasion and revelations about mistreatment of Muslim prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and a range of complaints about conditions at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, al-Jubeir said.

"Why do they hate you? They don't hate you, they just don't like your policies."

Al-Jubeir said the Saudi regime takes no umbrage at U.S. efforts to spread democracy in the Middle East. President Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice have made democratic expansion a centerpiece of Bush's second term foreign policy.

"We believe that the idea of spreading freedom and democracy is a noble one," but change must come on terms each country can accept, al-Jubeir said.

___

On the Net:
Video from the AP interview is available at:
http://wid.ap.org/video/saudi.rm

 

[fennec fox]

Well, the issue isn't that we're going to run out of oil -- it's more along the lines of when we go through more than half the world's oil, which is the point that extracting any more becomes expensive. That's when oil prices will go up extensively and we'll finally be searching (Scrambling?) for alternatives.

 

[ToxicAdam]

But wait, we are supposed to run out by 2010! That's what enviromental scientists have told me! They can't be wrong!

 

[goodcow]

But wait, we are supposed to run out by 2010! That's what enviromental scientists have told me! They can't be wrong!

 

[Doth Togo]

But wait, we are supposed to run out by 2010! That's what enviromental scientists have told me! They can't be wrong!

Y2K 2010 OMGWTFBBQ

 

[Instigator]

But wait, we are supposed to run out by 2010! That's what enviromental scientists have told me! They can't be wrong!

It won't run out by then. It just demand is growing faster than what's available in the market and what is foreseeable in terms of new sites. What will happen is a fluctuation of prices, with the inevitable trend towards them being more and more expensive as the years pass.

 

[Vinzer Deling]

The Decepticons can convert oil into Energon.

 

[dskillzhtown]

Running out of oil is not the issue. The money that it takes to get the oil is the problem. But Eastern countries like Russia and even China has must cheaper oil to get. That probably will be our alternatives if the Middle East gets too expensive.

 

[iapetus]

So let's get this straight - the incredibly rich ruler of an incredibly rich country that makes its money by selling oil says that there's lots of oil and we should all keep buying it.

Well that's okay then. Think I'll go buy another couple of SUVs.

 

[Maleficent]

President Bush says Saudi Arabia has WMD's and ties to al-queda. Former UN resolution gives us the right to invade.

Charge!!!!

 

[ToxicAdam]

So let's get this straight - the incredibly rich ruler of an incredibly rich country that makes its money by selling oil says that there's lots of oil and we should all keep buying it.

Well that's okay then. Think I'll go buy another couple of SUVs.

So, that's why he is investing money into new gas stations, refineries, and pipelines ... because he's trying to hide this incredible lie.

ugh.

 

[iapetus]

So, that's why he is investing money into new gas stations, refineries, and pipelines ... because he's trying to hide this incredible lie.

ugh.

I guess the sad part is how quick you are to swallow any evidence for what you want to believe, no matter how compromised the source, and how quick you are to reject any evidence for what you don't. A rational response given the two extreme views on the question is to query the motivations and qualifications of the people making the reports and to consider the possibility that the truth is somewhere between the two extremes. You just clutch at straws for your favourite interpretation, and that's kind of weak.

Questions for you: do you believe that in the short term the investment in new gas stations, refineries and pipelines is more or less than the money that would be lost if there was a large worldwide reduction in oil usage? Do you believe that it is in the interest of oil producing countries for the rest of the world to be more or less tied to oil consumption if prices start to rise due to shortage?

At least try to pretend to have an open mind.

 

[ToxicAdam]

I guess the sad part is how quick you are to swallow any evidence for what you want to believe, no matter how compromised the source, and how quick you are to reject any evidence for what you don't. A rational response given the two extreme views on the question is to query the motivations and qualifications of the people making the reports and to consider the possibility that the truth is somewhere between the two extremes. You just clutch at straws for your favourite interpretation, and that's kind of weak.

Questions for you: do you believe that in the short term the investment in new gas stations, refineries and pipelines is more or less than the money that would be lost if there was a large worldwide reduction in oil usage? Do you believe that it is in the interest of oil producing countries for the rest of the world to be more or less tied to oil consumption if prices start to rise due to shortage?

At least try to pretend to have an open mind.

I think by controlling all aspects of oil production and delivery you can better control the price of your product. Business people don't invest money unless there is some sort of long term return (either through profit or through the sale of an existing infrastructure).

It's more in the interest of oil producing companies to regulate prices rather than making consumers "more dependent". It's more PROFITABLE to be able to set a budget for a year or three years in advance, rather than one or three months in advance. These wild price fluctuations in oil prices(high or low) are not in thier best interest. If these alledged "shortages" happen, then prices go up, and then people seek alternatives ... High prices, but low sales. That isn't a successful business plan.

There is absolutely no long term advantage for this guy to lie.

 

[Phoenix]

Shit if they've got that much, pump it out of the ground fast enough so that its down to $1.00 a gallon all around the world!

 

[BigGreenMat]

I love how having enough oil for only 50 years or so becomes 'Enough Oil For Earth'. So we should sit on our hands for 50 years then be screwed?