According To the International Energy Agency (IEA) an extra 3 million barrels per day of oil production is needed to avoid another year of rising oil prices. It is anticipated that, without this production increase, the prices at the gas pumps will continue to rise.
Increasing production
The solution to our fuel problems seem to be simple — produce more oil. An increase in production would help eliminate the high cost at the pumps, while at the same time help increase the productivity of the ever-expanding demand on the economy. The math is simple, the IEA, the West’s energy watchdog, has calculated that a $10 decrease in oil prices would cause global GDP growth to expand by 1/2 a percent. Unfortunately, Saudi Arabia is the only OPEC producer with any significant spare capacity. All other OPEC member nations are already pumping near 25-year highs. A Reuters survey during September showed total August output from OPEC rose 100,000 barrels per day to 29.6 million bpd. Saudi Arabia raised supply to 9.5 million bpd, up 250,000 bpd. OPEC production is near its highest since December 1979, just below the 29.76 million it pumped in November 2000.
“We expect oil demand will be around 2 million barrels per day more in 2005 versus the average in 2004, so we need something like 3 million barrels per day of additional capacity globally to avoid another year of high prices,” a spokesman for the IEA told Reuters on the eve of the 19th World Energy Congress in Sydney. He said improved political stability in the Middle East would also be needed to temper prices.
Instability in Russia also affects oil prices. Oil prices bolted above $45 a barrel after Russian oil giant Yukos said its output could suffer because of a court ruling that froze some of its assets. The Yukos Oil Company owes the Russian government $3.4 billion in back taxes for 2000, and as a result is having difficulty making payroll, let alone producing oil.
The struggle between Russia and Chechnya also affects oil prices. Given the potential of what seem to be vast untapped deposits in the Caspian Sea and the fact that the best pipeline route from the Caspian through Russia to the West runs through the Chechan capital of Grozny, the odds are that tensions between Russia and Chechnya will not soon disappear. That will be the case even if constitutional matters dealing with regional rights and the integrity of the Russian republic can be resolved.
Dead Sea oil?
The high price of oil is not bad news for everyone. Oil-rich Kuwait has earned some $11.5 billion in oil income in the first five months of the current fiscal year, exceeding revenue estimates for the whole year. Therefore it would seem obvious to Israel that should they discover oil, additional wealth would surely come their way. Isaiah 60:5 seems to indicate that the Dead Sea shall bring forth an abundance of wealth: “Then you shall see and become radiant, and your heart shall swell with joy; because the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you, the wealth of the Gentiles shall come to you” (NKJ).
The Dead Sea fault zone marks the boundary of tectonic plates separating the African plate from the Arabian plate. It has been reckoned that after the escape of the waters at the time of the flood, this deep fracture trapped the mother-lode layer of petroleum which bled upwards to form the asphalt and tar seeps in the region of Sodom and Gomorrah. It is also noted that the Dead Sea is at the lowest point on earth and, as everyone knows, fluids flow downhill. Thus, producing wells could not only tap a substantial strike but could eventually drain the Arabian oil fields.
In 1985 Ness Oil (today Ness Energy) organized a consortium to drill at the Dead Sea site, but the drill string sheared off at about one mile depth. A subsequent drill to some 15,000-feet (close to three miles) came up empty. Again, on October 13, 1998, the Israel Oil Company had granted Ness drilling rights for 32,000 acres at the southwest end of the Dead Sea. The first well was slated for April, 2000, at a cost of $30 million and an expected depth of 19,000 feet. Once more, however, no significant oil was found.
With prices now topping $45 per barrel, the folks at Ness Energy have decided to have another look for Dead Sea oil. Ness believes Israel, in particular the southwest end of the Dead Sea, is a place where “Science and The Bible shake hands” and that they will achieve the vision of the location and recovery of an abundant source of oil and gas in Israel.
If oil is indeed discovered in Israel it would provide additional reasons for Israel to be invaded in these latter days. Yet so far Israel seems to be void of oil. Despite this fact, we do know that this nation will be invaded, plundered and saved by the hand of our Father in heaven. We pray that this day may come quickly.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One