Kuwaits Biggest Field Starts to Run Out of Oil (World's 2nd Largest)

[callady]

Kuwait's biggest field starts to run out of oil

It was an incredible revelation last week that the second largest oil field in the world is exhausted and past its peak output. Yet that is what the Kuwait Oil Company revealed about its Burgan field.
Kuwait: Saturday, November 12 - 2005 at 08:46



The peak output of the Burgan oil field will now be around 1.7 million barrels per day, and not the two million barrels per day forecast for the rest of the field's 30 to 40 years of life, Chairman Farouk Al Zanki told Bloomberg.

He said that engineers had tried to maintain 1.9 million barrels per day but that 1.7 million is the optimum rate. Kuwait will now spend some $3 million a year for the next year to boost output and exports from other fields.

However, it is surely a landmark moment when the world's second largest oil field begins to run dry. For Burgan has been pumping oil for almost 60 years and accounts for more than half of Kuwait's proven oil reserves. This is also not what forecasters are currently assuming.

http://www.ameinfo.com/71519.html

[tularetom]

1. Maybe this is why oil companies

are reluctant to invest in new refinery capacity.
Nothing to refine = no need for refineries.
They obviously know something we don't.

[katty]

58. That's right and more 'gas' stations have closed

[cantstandbush]

2. Did we stop them from slant drilling? n/t

[callady]

3. Only April Glaspie Knows

General Judy

[pinto]

5. Yeah, that was one of the big issues for the Gulf War - Kuwait was

accused of slant drilling - pulling oil from oil fields under Iraq territory - Iraq invaded Kuwait, publicly basing their invasion on that claim, less publicly, spouting Hussein's goal of a "greater Iraq" (sound familiar?).

The coalition brokered by Poppy and James Baker subsequently ousted Iraq from the Kuwait oil fields, established air bases in Saudi Arabia - soon to be a bone of contention with one Osama bin Laden - and suburbanized Qatar.

I, personally, think Iraq had a legit argument strictly on the oil drilling issue, regardless of the mental health situation with their leader.

Why the Kuwait oil fields would run slim now, I haven't a clue.

[IndianaGreen]

11. The current government in Iraq has already accused Kuwait of stealing

Iraqi oil. The issues that led to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait are still on the table. How ironic if Shia Iraq were to attack Kuwait.

[Solly Mack]

30. Also, the exact same ports are in contention as well

Iraq wants those ports back - and the US said they may have a legal claim to them -now(this after siding w/ Kuwait before). This came out at the same time Iraq accused Kuwait of slant drilling....

[Coastie for Truth]

4. Looks like Kunstler, Deffeyes, Goodstein, and Lovins were right.

Dr. M. King Hubbert called it right.

[lovuian]

6. What we are seeing is a change of wealth from the rich Sauds

who based their sole wealth on oil and now its decreasing

the power maybe shifting to Venuzuela and Iran

Where is Saudia Arabia in this mess???

[madrchsod]

8. i remember clinton telling the saudis they should invest

in solar panels--makes alot of sense doesn`t it....

[smirkymonkey]

31. Anybody have an idea as to what the Arab countries will look

like once the oil is gone? Will they be plunged into further poverty and despair or will it finally iron out the inequalities in thier society? Will it force them to develop other means of surviving in the secular world (developing other industries, placing more value on having an educated populace, etc.) or will it cause them to become more religious and backward?

I don't know the answer, but it is an interesting scenario to ponder.

[The Stranger]

39. ". . . religious and backward" like the U.S. is becoming?

Ponder that.

[smirkymonkey]

47. Yeah, kind of like that.

To me religious fundamentalism = backward, no matter what the religion is.

[amandabeech]

54. The Saudi Royal Family is hoping that dissidents can be kept at bay,

including Al Quaeda types.

The Saudis also are building and trying to convince others to build refineries capable of turning their heavy sour crude into useable products, like gasoline, diesel, heating-type oil and aviation fuels. They volunteered to build one here if we would take care of the regulatory and siting issues.

[madrchsod]

7. lets see- iraq has the 2nd largest fields

no venezuela has the second or first ,no the canadian oil shale is larger both,dam there is bio fuel and coal...dam the sky is falling!!!!!!!

shit i forgot about iran and maybe the under developed russian fields

[XemaSab]

9. No, ANWR has the biggest oil fields!

They're so big it would drive all the other OPEC countries out of business, and that's why the republicans voted it down!

[Odin2005]

10. A right wing idiot...

... on the off topic of a stratagy game forum I frequent says there will be no Peak Oil. I tell him the oil will run out, he thinks Big Oil is farsighted enough to invest in alternatives. :rofl:

[LunaC]

12. There’s a glitch in the “alternatives will solve everything” argument

Peak oil isn't just about cars and heating.

"It is often forgotten by many people that plastic products are based on
petroleum. A glance around any room will show how pervasive they are.
There are many other oil-based household objects. The following is a list of
just some products that may disappear with oil.

Air conditioners, ammonia, anti-histamines, antiseptics,
artificial turf, asphalt, aspirin, balloons, bandages, boats, bottles, bras,
bubble gum, butane, cameras, candles, car batteries, car bodies,
carpet, cassette tapes, caulking, CDs, chewing gum, combs/brushes,
computers, contacts, cortisone, crayons, cream, denture adhesives,
deodorant, detergents, dice, dishwashing liquid, dresses, dryers,
electric blankets, electrician’s tape, fertilisers, fishing lures, fishing
rods, floor wax, footballs, glues, glycerin, golf balls, guitar strings,
hair, hair colouring, hair curlers, hearing aids, heart valves, heating
oil, house paint, ice chests, ink, insect repellent, insulation, jet fuel,
life jackets, linoleum, lip balm, lipstick, loudspeakers, medicines,
mops, motor oil, motorcycle helmets, movie film, nail polish, oil
filters, paddles, paint brushes, paints, parachutes, paraffin, pens,
perfumes, petroleum jelly, plastic chairs, plastic cups, plastic forks,
plastic wrap, plastics, plywood adhesives, refrigerators, roller-skate
wheels, roofing paper, rubber bands, rubber boots, rubber cement,
rubbish bags, running shoes, saccharine, seals, shirts (non-cotton),
shoe polish, shoes, shower curtains, solvents, solvents, spectacles,
stereos, sweaters, table tennis balls, tape recorders, telephones, tennis
rackets, thermos, tights, toilet seats, toners, toothpaste, transparencies,
transparent tape, TV cabinets, typewriter/computer ribbons, tyres,
umbrellas, upholstery, vaporisers, vitamin capsules, volleyballs, water
pipes, water skis, wax, wax paper"

http://wolf.readinglitho.co.uk/index.html

Now what? Perhaps your right wing idiot can enlighten us with a
genius solution on how to solve this issue.

Welcome to DU.....a place of sanity, logic and reason in a Freeper world!

[Odin2005]

13. Thanks for the Welcome. :-)

Not to be nit-picky, but a lot of that stuff can be made from oil made from coal, IIRC. ;) We will also never really completely run out of oil, but it will be much more expensive (think, like, $500/barrel)

What I'm worried about is that I read in a intresting book called The End of Oil that oil companies and the OPEC countries exaggerate how much oil is left because they want to get evey $ from investors as they can before Peak Oil scares them away. :tinfoilhat:

[LunaC]

16. We're a consumer-based society

$500/barrel oil decimates the economy when no one can afford a $36 hairbrush, $5 aspirin or $45 toothbrush. So when you play out the cascading negative consequences resulting from the Oil Squeeze, we're still screwed. There's no happy-ending to the impending oil supply implosion that's already showing itself at the gas pumps, grocery stores and very soon in winter heating costs. And this is just the beginning. Perhaps you have a solution for this part of the equation.

[Delphinus]

26. One problem with coal,

if I'm remembering Deffeyes' thoughts correctly (or maybe they are Jared Diamond's), is coal isn't going to last forever either. Exponential growth is the problem - and if we take from one resource to cover the other, we're going to run out of the new resource even quicker.

Professor Albert Bartlett of the University of Colorado had this wonderful taped class on Peak Oil and Exponential Growth. I hadn't been sure about PO until after seeing him - and I am not a math person at all.

So, coal may give us a soft landing, but it isn't the cure-all. We need to be thinking of new ways - period.

[Megahurtz]

59. This would not surprise me one bit,

I think that the greedy assholes are probably hoarding the oil somewhere
just to squeeze more $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ out of whoever,
or they're just playing fucking games.

Time for Solar Power!

[kineneb]

14. good list but lots of natural alternatives

which were used until oil became popular:
ammonia- fermented urine (almost inexhaustible resource there):)
asprin- willow bark
bandages- plain old cotton
boats- wood, oars, sails, etc.
carpet- wool, cotton, silk
combs/brushes- horn, wood, vegetable or animal bristles
dice- bone (what they were originally made from)
dresses/clothing- various natural fibers (cotton, linen, hemp, wool, silk, etc.)
fertilizers- poop
fishing rods- bamboo
insect repellant- citronella plant
linoleum - originally made from flax seed oil (linen...linoleum)
lip balm/lipstick- lanolin, beeswax
Paddles- see boat above
paint brushes- wood, metal, animal hair (still the best quality)
paints- milk paint, oil (vege) paints
rubber- latex from trees
shoes -talk to the cow
shower curtains - they still make washable cotton ones
spectacles -glass, heavy but beats blindness
sweaters - sheep, llama, cotton, etc.
telephones - Bakelite!
tennis rackets- wood and gut
tights- silk,(OK, they aren't as good as spandex, but...)
toilet seats -wood!
toothpaste -baking soda
umbrellas - metal/wood + cloth
upholstery -see dresses
wax -talk to bees

Of course there is not a replacement for some materials. Perhaps looking at the natural alternatives will make us realize that we have been using oil as cheap subsitute for naturally occurring and renewable resources.

[LunaC]

17. I'm a big proponent of natural alternatives

but try and convince the rest of society. You only have to search the DU archives for any discussion regarding the use of herbs over pharmaceuticals to understand the resistance.

[MADem]

35. My first thought was CORN oil, and other plant oils (canola, etc.)

Might make that plastic bottle my dog always chews taste a bit better!!!!

[XemaSab]

61. The problem with corn

it that it's very resource-intensive, especially as far as nitrogen goes.

Right now it takes FAR more energy to grow than we get out of it.

[Nostradammit]

18. *Ahem* Hemp -

Henry Ford had lousy politics, but he came close to realizing his dream of growing a car from soil. We have everything we need to solve our problems, it's just that greed and fear of change keep our broken systems in place.

A change of heart is coming.

[LunaC]

19. Hemp heart valves?

You'd have to do a lot of convincing for me to believe that all our future plastics problems can be solved with hemp, and I'm an enthusiastic proponent of alternatives!

[Nostradammit]

20. and soybeans.

I'm not certain what percentage of world plastic consumption goes towards heart valves, but I'm willing to bet it's not much.

Food containers?
Building materials?
Paints and distillates?
etc., etc.



http://www.montana.edu/wwwpb/ag/baudr318.html


http://www.hfmgv.org/research/services/populartopics/SoybeanCar/default.asp#more

[LunaC]

22. Very informative links - thanks! n/t

[LunaC]

40. Hemp questions

Your first link certainly portrays hemp as a suitable alternative to oil and oil-based products but putting theory into practice sometimes presents drawbacks that make practical application prohibiitive. Can you point me in the right research direction to find out more?

Specifically, I'm interested in knowing if hemp oil used in the same proportion to fossil oil as a fuel or in the manufacturing process?

How many hemp plants are required to produce the equivalent of a barrel of fossil oil?

How many hemp plants can be grown on an acre?

What is the cost of refining hemp into a suitable fuel source compared to current refining expenses?

When you consider that the United States consumes about 17 million barrels of oil per day, it would seem that we'd need to grow billions upon billions of hemp plants just to maintain our current standards. I'm not convinced that's feasible from a practical standpoint.

[Nostradammit]

48. we'd need to grow billions upon billions of hemp plants

Relax, it's a weed. Grows anywhere, four crops a year. Each acre of hemp can produce 1,000 gallons of methanol per year. And it needs no pesticides, can be used to make paper and building materials, thereby keeping logging trucks off the road. Keep researching it. You've described yourself as an enthusiastic proponent of alternatives.

You should be.

[LunaC]

49. "each acre of hemp can produce 1,000 gallons of methanol per year"

Big whoop....we use 17 million barrels (31.5 gallons per barrel) of oil per day. Do the math. It just isn't possible for hemp to substitute for fossil fuel at our current standards.

[Nihil]

53. Don't fret about it ...

> It just isn't possible for hemp to substitute for fossil fuel
> at our current standards.

Once the problem bites home and a few billion people die off, the
survivors will be far more flexible with regard to "standards" than
the current generations ...

[LunaC]

57. Time for the Georgia Guidestones

1. Maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature.
2. Guide reproduction wisely - improving fitness and diversity.
3. Unite humanity with a living new language.
4. Rule passion - faith - tradition - and all things with tempered reason.
5. Protect people and nations with fair laws and just courts.
6. Let all nations rule internally resolving external disputes in a world court.
7. Avoid petty laws and useless officials.
8. Balance personal rights with social duties.
9. Prize truth - beauty - love - seeking harmony with the infinite.
10. Be not a cancer on the earth - Leave room for nature - Leave room for nature

http://www.thegeorgiaguidestones.com/Message.htm

[LunaC]

43. A barrel of hemp oil currently costs $3433! Totally impractical!

If there are 31.5 liquid gallons in a barrel and hemp oil currently costx $109/gallon, then a barrel of hemp oil currently costs $3433!

http://www.scenta.co.uk/tcaep/science/conversions/volume.htm
https://agri9.netcetra.com/cgi-bin/hempoilcan/commerce.cgi?product=food

That takes it out of the realm of possibility, doesn't it?

[slor]

21. Have you called your reps about H.R. 3037?

This is to remove Hemp from the controlled substances list.

[Nostradammit]

24. No, but I will.

Thanks for the heads up! This is good news, indeed.

[Nostradammit]

25. For those who care about saving the world...

http://capwiz.com/norml2/issues/alert/?alertid=7766166&type=CO


An easy way to push H.R. 3037 along.

[pokercat999]

23. Gee how did we live without plastic? NT

[Gregorian]

32. We only had one billion people.

And horses did the work. And we didn't have Tupperware. And life was slower. And much much better overall. At least, I think so.

[AngryAmish]

38. Ever been bitten by a horsefly?

I prefer not to have horse---- everywhere.

[Gregorian]

45. Ever been in a traffic jam?

I'll take the flies. My response is not something I conjured up this morning. I spent many years thinking about this. Penicillin. Pasteurization. Novocaine. Telephone. Radio. Lots of good stuff. You can keep it. I want silence. I want less. I want slower. I had a tooth extracted last week. I really wonder what would have happened had it been 1890. Painful. And temporary.

[XemaSab]

62. Fine.

You can go live in your unabomber cabin.

But the rest of us, while open to "scaling back", are aware of the benefits of modern medicine, modern communications, and electricity.

Dying of an ear infection? No thanks!

[RebelOne]

50. Yes, I have been bitten by a horsefly, but that didn't

stop me from owning horses.

[amandabeech]

55. My grandparents didn't agree with you. n/t

[donsu]

33. I was born before plastic but after oil

we got along just fine without plastic

[fortyfeetunder]

29. Guess we revert to the pre-oil times, then

Simpler times before we got intoxicated on oil. But this is well deserved, for the US neglected to fully implement a comprehensive energy policy, including alternatives to petrochemical consumption.

Carter tried, but once Reagan came into office, he practically undid all of Carter's efforts.

Here comes the "interesting times" of that old Chinese curse...

[drm604]

34. What about thermal depolymerization

Thermal Depolymerization

From the Wikipedia entry:

Thermal depolymerization (TDP) is a process for the reduction of complex organic materials (usually waste products of various sorts, often known as biomass) into light crude oil. It mimics the natural geological processes thought to be involved in the production of fossil fuels. Under pressure and heat, long chain polymers of hydrogen, oxygen, and carbon decompose into short-chain petroleum hydrocarbons with a maximum length of around 18 carbons.
<snip>
A new approach that exceeded break-even was developed by Illinois microbiologist Paul Baskis in the 1980s and refined over the next 15 years. The technology was finally developed for commercial use in 1996 by Changing World Technologies. Brian Appel (CEO of Changing World Technologies) took the technology in 2001 and expanded and changed it into TCP and has applied for a patent. A Thermal Depolymerization demonstration plant was completed in 1999 in Philadelphia by Thermal Depolymerization, LLC, and the first full-scale commercial plant was constructed in Carthage, Missouri, about 100 yards (100 m) from ConAgra Foods' massive Butterball Turkey plant, where it is expected to process about 200 tons of turkey waste into 500 barrels (21,000 US gallons or 80 m³ of oil per day.

It won't be a net energy producer, we'll still need alternatives for that, but maybe it can meet the need for a chemical feedstock.

[silverweb]

44. Thank you.

I was scanning the thread to see if anyone would bring this up and if not, I intended to.

Plastics can also be made from corn and other crops. As a matter of fact, that company we all love to hate, Wal-Mart, recently announced that it was going to switch to corn-based plastics for its packaging and other companies are switching, as well.
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2005/10/walmart_to_use.php

The only hitch is that it will be a GM corn-based product, manufactured by Dow, but GM contamination of crops is already well underway, so there's not much we can do about that. At this point, any "plantic" is better than oil-based plastic.

[jamesinca]

37. Don't forget pesticides and the Ag industry N/T.

[vogonity]

52. Hair? (n/t)

[Jamison]

56. Good post LunaC

A lot of unimformed people I know think that the world would go on like it does right now (just without cars) if all oil were to run out. They simply just don't realize that the end of oil will send us straight back to the middle ages.

[XemaSab]

63. My personal suspicion

is that we'll develop alternatives for somethings and use the remaining oil for the few things we can't do without, like new plastics for heart valves.

[calimary]

15. Welcome to DU!

Glad you're here!

Don't forget to help us

Visualize IMPEACHMENT!!!
And then go DO something about it.

[hatrack]

27. Possible connection to the post-Gulf War I "production" environment

As you probably remember, some 500-odd wells were detonated, turning day into night across much of Kuwait. Some of the wells ran wild for months before being brought into control.

What I can't believe I didn't think of before is how this may have affected rate sensitivity. Blow up the control systems, let any well or field flame off millions, maybe tens of millions of barrels over a relatively short (in production terms) period of weeks or months, and you're going to have problems down the line with bringing that well or field back to life.

It's not so much the loss of oil (thougn estimates are that Kuwait lost 2%+ of its EUR due to Iraqi sabotage of the fields), it's the loss or pressure (whether water or gas drive) that could have substantially weakened the Burgan Complex - or other fields, for that matter.

And, of course, there's always the possibility that Burgan's time may have simply come anyway, whatever the impact of events of 1991.

[4dsc]

28. And so it begins..

The era of cheap oil is over and soon the downside of peak oil will rear its ugly head. And its not going to pretty..

Imagine a US economy that cannot expand because it cannot get the oil its needs??

[Gregorian]

36. I think this sums it up nicely.

But you'll need Flash 8.

http://www.weebls-stuff.com/wab/history8/

[Doremus]

41. Does anyone have the link to the Bloomberg reference to this?

The only reference I can find is at the OP link.

Thanks.

[angryxyouth]

42. Lets not forget anything carbon based can be turned into oil.

I have posted this link before. These guys are doing it. There first commercial plant is taking turkey carcasses and turning it into high quality oil.
http://www.changingworldtech.com/

[silverweb]

46. Absolutely.

See post #34 above, and my response in post #44.

:hi:

I've said it many times before and I'll say it again: We don't need oil.

With existing technologies, the imagination, and the will (aka heavy investment), we could be weaned off fossil fuels in 10 years or even less.

[TX-RAT]

51. No big deal, just put them on a pump.

We do it all the time here. Once a well has lost enough pressure to quit flowing we put them on a pump. In many case's they will pump more than they flow. Most of the wells in that area have been allowed to flow for years, something we don't do here, but then we have the Railroad Commission that determines how much you are allowed to remove, on a well by well basis. They haven't even started on their secondary recovery programs, ( injection wells ) something we've been doing for years.



(Kuwait will now spend some $3 million a year for the next year to boost output and exports from other fields.)


Evidently their not too concerned if all their investing is 3 mil a year, in most cases just drilling and putting 1 well on line will cost you anywhere from 1/2 mil to 1 mil. Depending on depth and down hole conditions.

[speedingbullet]

60. Sputter, Sputter...

Doesn't bode well for the world economy. I read an analysis that compared oil in the economy to water in the body. You don't have to run completely dry before things get really bad. Having some experience with dehydration this makes sense to me.

[trekbiker]

64. oil isnt going to dissappear anytime soon...

just the cheap, easy to get, easy to refine oil. Oil sands become profitable at around $20 per barrel. There's also coal gassification. Our economy seems to be able to survive at $50+ per barrel and that means a whole lot of viable options just opened up. As oil price goes up and stays up more and more of these sources will be exploited. I believe in Hubert's peak but I dont think he factored in the effect of $/barrel on alternative sources of oil as well as renewables like solar, wind and ethanol contributing to the overall energy mix. There's enough coal, oil shale and oil sands to last a long long time. Unfortunately, releasing that much carbon back into the atmosphere will likely destroy the planet. The real problem is not going to be lack of oil, it's going to be the permanent high cost of oil and the environmental disaster exploiting all those oil sources will cause.

[Overseas]

65. Lovely talk about alternatives but so much resistance to conservation tech

So hard to push for modest conservation targets. Global climate changing radically and we won't even sign the Kyoto treaty to get our country moving. We need to get moving on energy efficiency because alternatives require some oil to run and to make parts for the machines that process the alternatives.