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07/17/2007: "Political peak oil a reality, meaning war for oil"

The resurgence of resource nationalism bears a good bit of the responsibility for the glum oil supply projections-what I've previously called "political peak oil." Seventy-seven percent of world oil reserves are owned by national oil companies. Unfortunately, national oil companies are located in technologically backward countries without access to world-class production expertise and adequate supplies of capital. As the IEA diplomatically puts it, "Often political and social spending needs grow to the point where oil exploration and development investment is compromised, in turn reducing oil and gas exports." And this is happening. Major oil producers such as Venezuela, Mexico, Russia, and Iran are using oil revenues to bribe their people and not investing enough to maintain future oil production.

[ Human civilization has been unstable for centuries, but now we're finally forced to deal with each other, and the result is chaos. If we had a stable political outlook, it would be different. ]

http://reason.com/news/show/121436.html