In this area we will post articles or excerpts from various media sites concerning oil and its’ impact on our daily lives.

Crude oil hit $100 a barrel for the first time Wednesday, 1/2/08, and the odds are that it will keep climbing -- with major consequences.

If crude stays above $100 a barrel for an extended period, "you could see gasoline prices at $3.60 or $4 a gallon, which is absolutely frightening," Paul Ashworth, senior U.S. economist at Capital Economics, a London research firm, told The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday. "It's going to have a fairly devastating impact."

The Energy Emergency (U.S. News and World Report 9/10/07)

 Oil is Americas Achilles heel.  We are addicted to it.  Every American consumer burns about double what a European consumes….

 Oil Discovery is not keeping pace with demand. 

In 1930 we found 10B new barrels of oil and used 1.5 B;

in 1964 we found 48 billion and consumed 12 billion barrels;

in 1988 we found 23 billion and used 23 billion barrels;

in 2005 we found 6 billion and consumed 30 billion barrels.

 Worldwide demand is growing by an average of 2 to 3 million barrels a day. 

 We are facing a world of higher prices and increasingly tighter supplies, creating a growing gap between worldwide demand and worldwide production…… We also can’t seem to develop an appropriate energy policy that by definition will take years to implement.

 It is we who are placing our own country over a barrel now.

Expert:  Oil Prices Set to Hit $100 by End of ’08…

By Adam Schreck (AP Business Writer, 10/2/07)

Oil prices could top $100 a barrel by the end of next year and remain above that point for years to come…

 Update!  It took until the 2nd DAY of 2008 to reach $100 a barrel!

…rising demand within oil-rich nations such as Mexico, Venezuela and Saudi Arabia will put pressure on global oil prices in the coming years.

 Oil exports from OPEC countries, Russia and Mexico will likely decline by about 3 million barrels per day over the next five years.  The biggest drop, he expects, will come from Mexico, a key U.S. supplier.

 …Mexican oil imports to the U.S. will dry up by about 2012. 

 Replacing relatively easy-to-refine liquid crude with petroleum from oil sands is certain to increase costs…

 “We’re basically replacing low-cost oil with high-cost oil”

 Looking ahead …crude oil prices will average as much as $90 a barrel next year, rising to around $100 by the end of 2008.  That would represent an increase of nearly 25 percent over the current price of $80.05 a barrel.

 “Triple digit prices is not a spike, triple digit oil prices is what is going to be required to maintain, let alone grow, world oil supplies.”

Peak Oil Production (excerpts from Wikipedia 10/2/07)

 Editor’s note: whether peak oil production was in 2006 (pessimistic) or will occur in 2008 (optimistic), we will soon start a gradual, then accelerated decline in oil production.

 World oil production growth trends, in the short term, have been flat over the last 18 months.

 “All the easy oil and gas in the world has pretty much been found,” said William J. Cummings, ExxonMobil’s spokesman.  “Now comes the harder work in finding and producing oil from more challenging environments and work areas”.

 …the International Energy Agency reported global demand at 84.9 million barrels per day, resulting in an annual demand of over 31 billion barrels.

 This means consumption is now basically equal to production.