« previous | TPM CAFÉ READER POSTS HOME | next »
new oil field discovered in Iran. Can meet world demand for 2 days?
Just came across this really strange story, allegedly coming out of Tehran claiming that they've discovered a new field with about a billion barrels of oil, only 225 million of which is recoverable.
The world consumes 85 million barrels a day, so unless my math is wrong, that's a little over 2 days worth of oil.
This isn't exactly something to write home about.
The story came across the AP so Washington is somehow behind it. I'm just not sure what the motives are.
Advertisement
Comments (3)
There are all sorts of abbreviations in the oil business. URR = Ultimately Recoverable Resources, and is always a fraction of what is estimated to actually underground. To get the unrecoverable oil you'd have to dig a Grand Canyon-like mining operation, which would cost more than the oil would be worth. With newer tech, some unrecoverable oil becomes recoverable, which is why some URR increase over the years.
July 13, 2008 9:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
That's almost 3 days of the world's oil demand!!!
Note the three exclamation points. The US uses about 20 million barrels of oil a day based on 2007 figures. I don't know how much Iran uses per day but they have 75 million people to our 300 million or 25% of our population. Leaving out the probability that Iran being a relatively poor country most likely doesn't use oil as extravagantly as we do let's say they consume about 25% as much oil per day as we do or 5 million barrels a day. That 225 million barrels would come to about 45 days of their needs.
Seems safe to say they must be looking for other reasons to brag about this find. OPEC bases it's per country quotas on how much recoverable reserves each has. This has led to widespread padding of recoverable estimates. Iran also has said one of the very important reasons for it building nuclear power plants is because they don't want to use up their exportable oil making electricity. Of all the big ME producers Iran is likely to run out first. If they're bragging about a 225 million barrel field maybe the Chinese ought to start drilling 50 miles off Florida because it looks like their Iranian suppliers are running out.
Though frankly I think there's more recoverable oil in Tom Delay's hair than there is in Cuban waters.
July 13, 2008 10:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
Maybe it's considered worth a mention because it's reportedly near Andimeshk, which is north of the major Iranian oil fields -- from Ahvaz south toward Bushehr.
Iran may be signaling to the world that it could be sitting on far more undiscovered oil than previously thought.
So invest in us, they imply, and the world supply of oil might increase. Prices won't fall, but they might stabilize.
Bomb us, and ... well, you know the rest.
July 14, 2008 2:58 AM | Reply | Permalink
Post a Comment