(Posted by John.)
Many if not most of you probably saw this at Kevin Drum's place, but it's kind of important and I'd like to think energy-blogging is still something I do every once in a while.
Apparently, Stuart Staniford at The Oil Drum (your one-stop energy news shopping destination) has crunched the numbers, and says that Saudi Arabia's oil production is now in decline. Moreover, the decline looks like the same pattern we've seen in other modern, full-spectrum production fields like the North Sea -- 8% this year, with the likelihood of accelerating declines in years to come.
Not, as they say, a good thing.
Now the obvious retort is that as prices have "fallen" this year, the Kingdom has cut production artificially. Staniford attempts to address that hypothesis -- to my mind, convincingly -- but this issue is obviously going to require more analysis.
Some further thoughts below the fold.
