World's Top Ten Oil Companies
Unable To Replenish Reserves
www.btinternet.com/~nlpwessex/Documents/oilsectorfailstoreplenishreserves.htm
Sector Finding Less Oil - Pull Outs Anticipated

"Oil groups face growing pressure to quit the North Sea amid evidence of global failure to find big new oil deposits.
The world’s top ten energy companies are failing to find enough new crude to replenish their reserves... Wood Mackenzie [has studied] the industry’s top ten and the consultancy has concluded they are finding fewer barrels."
North Sea exploration a loser, say oil experts
London Times, 26 January 2004

"Our industry can certainly be proud of its past achievements. Yet the challenges we will face in the coming years will be every bit as great as those encountered in the past, due in part to ever-increasing global energy use. For example, we estimate that world oil and gas production from existing fields is declining at an average rate of about 4 to 6 percent a year. To meet projected demand in 2015, the industry will have to add about 100 million oil-equivalent barrels a day of new production. That's equal to about 80 percent of today's production level. In other words, by 2015, we will need to find, develop and produce a volume of new oil and gas that is equal to eight out of every 10 barrels being produced today."
John Thompson, President of ExonnMobil, the world's largest oil company
The Lamp (published for ExonnMobil shareholders), 2003, Vol. 85 No.1

London Times, 26 January 2004
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,8209-977705,00.html  

North Sea exploration a loser, say oil experts
By Carl Mortished, International Business Editor
 
OIL GROUPS face growing pressure to quit the North Sea amid evidence of global failure to find big new oil deposits.

The world’s top ten energy companies are failing to find enough new crude to replenish their reserves, according to Wood Mackenzie, the oil consultancy, which sees exploration in the UK North Sea as the industry’s biggest waste of money over the past five years. 

The leading energy groups, which issue full-year financial results over the next fortnight, face scrutiny by shareholders seeking evidence of resources to increase oil output in the next five years. Shell this month scared investors when it cut a fifth of its reserves to “unproven” status. The outcry led Wood Mackenzie to study the industry’s top ten and the consultancy has concluded they are finding fewer barrels.  

David Halliday, of Wood Mackenzie, said exploration could no longer propel the industry. The largest reserves remained locked in the Middle East, and the biggest prizes in Europe and North America have been found. “Companies will need to face this,” he said.  

The lesson is to know when to stop investing, Wood Mackenzie says, adding: “To withdraw completely from an area like the UK North Sea or parts of Latin America would be a tough call. The question for managements is: when will that time come?”  

Many reported additions to reserves come not from finds, but enhanced recovery, it says.

AFTER THE INVASION OF IRAQ
"The UK is a net exporter of oil, so we have no need of the Iraqi oil."
British Prime Minister, House of Commons, 14 April 2003

BEFORE THE INVASION OF IRAQ
".... our energy system faces new challenges.... Our energy supplies will increasingly depend on imported gas and oil..... we need access to a wide range of energy sources."
British Prime Minister, Foreword to DTI Energy White Paper, February 2003

"Four months ago, Britain's oil imports overtook its exports, underlining a decline in North Sea oil production that was already well under way. North Sea oil output peaked at about 2.9m barrels per day in 1999, and has been predicted to fall to only 1.6m bpd by 2007. Even the discovery of the new Buzzard field, the biggest British oil find in a decade, with a total of some 500m barrels recoverable, will not alter by much the overall picture of dwindling resources. This prospect would not be so bleak were it not that similar trends are now becoming manifest around the globe..... Today we enjoy a daily production of 75m bpd. But to meet projected demand in 2015, we would need to open new oilfields that can give an additional 60m bpd. This is frankly impossible. It would require the equivalent of more than 10 new regions, each the size of the North Sea. Maybe Iraq with enormous new investments will increase production by 6m bpd, and the rest of the Middle East might be able to do the same. But to suggest that the rest of the world could produce an extra 40m barrels daily is just moonshine. These calculations place the coming oil crunch some time between 2010 and 2015, perhaps earlier. The reserves in the world's super-giant and giant oilfields are dwindling at an average rate of 4-6 per cent a year.... The conclusion is clear: if we do not immediately plan to make the switch to renewable energy - faster, and backed by far greater investment than currently envisaged - then civilisation faces the sharpest and perhaps most violent dislocation in recent history."
Michael Meacher, former UK environment minister
Plan now for a world without oil
Financial Times, 5 January 2004

GLOBAL ENERGY CRISIS LOOMING
www.btinternet.com/~nlpwessex/Documents/energycrisis.htm

  NATURAL LAW PARTY WESSEX
nlpwessex@btinternet.com
www.btinternet.com/~nlpwessex