Funny Numbers | Green Energy News

July 31, 2005 – Vol.10 No.19

FUNNY NUMBERS.

If you’re the gambling type (as above) and are willing to bet on the rising price of gasoline here’s some news on which to make that wager.

According to a story reported by the BBC, OPEC member nations, particularly those in the Middle East and countries of the former Soviet Union, may be overstating (by significant numbers) their oil reserves.

The reason for their possible overstatement goes back to a switch in the 1980’s to a quota production system based on the size of their reserves. The greater the stated reserves the more they could pump and the more profits they could make. It’s bad business that’s been going on for 20 years.

The BBC said that in 1985 Kuwait revised its claimed reserves upward by 50 percent overnight. The country went from reserves of 64 billion barrels in the 1970’s to 92 billion barrels in the 1990’s. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) went from 34 billion barrels in the 70’s to 92 billion barrels in the 90’s. Similarly Iran went from 64 to 93, Iraq 48 to a nice round 100, and in 1988 Saudi Arabia added 88 billion barrels of claimed reserves, from 170 billion barrels to 258 billion barrels.

The trouble is the nations aren’t saying whether they actually found more oil (overnight)(unlikely) or just erased an old number and inserted a new one. Most likely they used the pink end of the pencil.

Sounds like OPEC got its business model from ENRON.

There’s more juicy stuff in the article - How much oil do we really have?

by Adam Porter of the BBC. View the BBC article at http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/business/4681935.stm