I know I risk sounding like a broken record here, but there have been a couple of things in the news lately that I thought worth sharing.
Firstly, the price of crude has broken through $50/barrel. Even the mainstream media seem to be starting to take this issue seriously.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3695820.stm
The other thing that caught my attention was a revision of world demand. Upwards of course. The International Energy Agency reckon it's at 82.2 million barrels/day, 750,000 more than previously estimated.
"Demand growth this year is running at its fastest level in 24 years, the Paris-based organisation said."
They predict that demand will be up to 84 Mbarrels/day next year.
To put this into some kind of context, demand as recently as 1996 was around 72 Mbarrels/day. Demand has risen by around 15% in only 8 years.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3554462.stm
As far as supply goes, page 12 of this PDF document...
http://library.iea.org/dbtw-wpd/Textbase/nppdf/free/2004/keyworld2004.pdf
indicates a supply of around 3500 Mt
I don't know how to convert Mt into Mbarrels/day. I suppose you have to know how much a barrel weighs...
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