Matthew Simmons: What's Going On With Oil? (video)

[SpiceSE90]

Yeah, but Simmons has said a lot of other crazy stuff. He said the US would run out of Gasoline in 2007. Didn't happen. He said we would run out of natrural gas before that. Natural gas reserves have since increased dramatically. Simmons is nuts.

[AlienEntity1]

I recently listened to a podcast of James Howard Kunstler debating Michael Lynch ofStrategic Energy & Economic Research.

This was from 2005.

Lynch was very confident, and convincing. But it struck me as remarkable that he predicted oil would settle back into the $20 range!!

Of course this is completely wrong. At least in Matt Simmons case, he said oil could easily reach $300 - he didn't say it would though.

I certainly wouldn't count on oil returning to $20 anytime soon.

[florgat91]

matt simmons has been way off on oil - that's why he's not on much anymore

[50chickens]

yes. picking cherrypicking 6 months out of a 10 years trend sure does invalidate that trend.

[AlienEntity1]

Are you listening to what Matt is saying? Do you have data that contradicts his analysis on America's capacity to refine, or on the overall output trends of mature oil fields?

I've never seen that data from anyone. you might be the first.

Also it's interesting to note that oil was at $37 at the time of this video, and it's now (August) at roughly $72.

That's a 51% climb in price already.

[MsZeitgeist85]

@florgat91 Matt Simmons isn't on anymore because he died last year and he was not way off.

The Caryoka offshore wells in Brazil were exxagerated and so was the Caspian Sea reserve.

[christo930]

How much of our current crisis is traceable to the sustained high prices of oil? Did the high oil prices just drain our economy of too much money? While things are down we should be setting up ourselves for rail and barge shipping. This is the perfect time to do it. There is a massive slowdown and that gives good ramp-up time. We waste too much energy on diesel truck shipping and short airplane trips.

[kevinaugustine]

Thanks Leanan,

Demand has not significantly fallen to account for the precipitous price decline.

I'm no believer in conspiracy theories (I agree with Chomsky that they are quite difficult to successfully manage) but the absurdly low price is a manipulated contrivance. How? I don't know, but the historian Fernand Braudel has much to say about eighteenth century Amsterdam or sixteenth century Genoa and fabricated economic "zones of turbulence".

Kevin Walsh

Chicago Peak Oil

[valhala56]

This is one of those giveth and taketh deals. The Oil Gods are giving us one last feast before it reveals it's true nature. A world of increasing scarcity in conjunction with a Global economy that is imploding. Short a global natural diasater or Pandemic this is probaly the worst thing that can happen to us.

This is lulling us into a false belief that the problem is gone away.

[InnocentByproduct]

That host Dylan Ratigan was VERY astute to try and translate everythig into plain language as often as possible for the veiwer audience. I wish more news/talkshow hosts were as sensitive to laymen as he is.