One thing you omit to mention in your article is tofind out why these countries would not accept foreign capital.Afterall, which country wouldn't like the infusion of foreign capital into their economies.Afterall these countries allowed foreign capital investments before in their oil sectors. The behaviour of these foreign capital investors.In the 80's & 90's, these foreign investment company's - ExonMobil et al, always fall-outy with their host countries,violating terms of their investment contracts & are used as an instrument for their home countries
to forward their foreign policy agendas.Some countries like Shell makes so much money to the detriment of their host country's economy/environment,encouraging corruption & insurhencies.ExonMobil is used as a foreign policy instrument in latin america.All these are wrong,but isn't it amazing that when God created this world,gave the all the know-how to the west & all the natural resources to these American Enemies - Is that not amazing?

Brenden, New York, New Yok

'A recession would accomplish such a cutback, but that is neither likely ....'.

I think this writer is one of those forever bulls! The US economy is either in or right on the edge of a recession. Of course OPEC is not going to increase production, even if it could which is unlikely. It is struggling to produce 84m barrels now and Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UK and Mexico have peaked. Why should it increase production when it gets paid in the doomed currency of US Dollars? The Dollar is going down, it has already breached the key support level of 80.

A recession would be good news for OPEC and as they will be able hide the fact that peak oil has or very soon will be reached. Oil prices are not going to fall. OPEC will seek to achieve an oil price which takes into account the falling Dollar. Bad news especially for the USA.

D Rumsfeld, London, UK

Actually, Chávez, or Chaburro, as the Venezuelan intelligentsia call him, is Castro's unconditional pawn, whence his hatred of America, who should, late as it is, revise her strategy and ask herself if she's still the beacon of freedom.

eugene, heidelberg, germany

Thank you, your clear explanations of this difficult issue helped me understand the sad details a little better.

John, Nevada City, CA

It's time for the world to wake up to the 'Methanol Economy' - - which is not only based on biomass and other available sources, but also on re-cycling the greenhouse global-warming gas CO2 that everyone is complaining of.

Solve 2 major (ie, energy/ & warming) problems in one simple move, and reduce reliance on our potential enemies - - now that would progress, perhaps even 'common sense.'

Dr Robert Brown, Tustin, USA, California

Databank


The share price info is interesting but you need to put in another column.

% change on the week. No trends can be detected with simple absolute prices.

michael paterson, frome, uk

Russian oil production is at 9.89Mbpd, its highest ever. Mean while Suadi produtuin has dropped to 8.7Mbpd. Mr. Irwin Stelzer need to get his fact straight before writing anything. You need to get your own facts based on real data and not being lazy quoting 2nd hand information.

Hal Smith, Boston, MA, USA

It's no longer satisfactory to view the World in the context of "Our National Interest" as the US does to it's injury.
While that approached cannot be abandoned completely there must be a recognition that we are all spinning through the universe on the same rock.
The US uses 25 % of the Worlds resources while representing 4% of the population, It's not something the Chinese, Indians, Indonesians, Russians etc etc. will continue to tolerate.
The time to deal with the pending crunch is now, The World is really one community.

Willaim Knapp, toronto, Canada

"He is also inadvertently helping to maintain prices by allowing Russia’s oil output to fall " Perhaps Mr Stelzer can substantiate with figures. One shouldn't forget that Russia's oil is rightly being used for for the benefit of that country's citizens not for the benefit of Americans.

Marco Borg, London , UK

Errr... yes it is. Nuclear power is used to generate electricity, which is then used to electrolyse water to generate hydrogen for use in fuel cells. The electricity can also be stored directly using batteries. Battery powered vehicles are a reality now and fuel cells are being developed for transport use to replace oil.

One thing is certain, there is a finite amount of oil and it will run out so investing in developing alternative sources of fuel is a must.

Jennifer, Northampton,

Of course Mr Stelzer is correct in his assumptions. The problem that we have in the US is quite specific. After occupying most of the vacancies at our Universities, the communists/fascists moved into the enviromental groups where they have used clean air/water etc, to attack business. Nowhere so effectively than in Congress. The Ethanol scam is the latest example of goverment designing fuels. The motivating force behind this national disgrace is the quest for power to run one's lives through taxation. Nowhere is that more clear than in the good old UK, where, any fluctuation in temperature is a reason to raise taxes. We, in the USA are just about to get to this stage where the only salvation/redemption is higher taxes. Gore fly's a G 5 and uses 1500 gallons of fuel per hour, Robert Kennedy the same. All the Pols in D.C. drive Chelsea Tractors, not the 35 MPG mini cars they want the rest of us to drive.

Robert Granville Lee, Bloomfield hills,, Michigan, USA

and America sleeps...
as Burke said "work on though despair" so as a curative I'd suggest a worlds fair - and then get on wih building an infrastructure to meet the new demands ( and they are many) of the new century - eg TRAINS & etc
As the great hollywood directors would say "Let"s look at the big picture

glenn schaefer, holbrook, USA

That's where Africa comes in. I have always been convinced that in the end it will be Africa again that bails the West out of this oil predicament.

Wilf, London, UK

'Meanwhile, the American economy remains dependent on its enemies for its fuel...'
Really? US government figures for the daily import of petroleum and crude oil by the USA for June 2007 show the following (mbd = million barrels/day):-
8.1 mbd out of 11.2 mbd of petroleum imports - 72% - came from friendly countries. If Saudi Arabia is excluded from my list of friendly countries the figure drops to 6.6 mbd - 59%.
6.8 mbd out of 9.4 mbd of crude oil imports - 72% - came from friendly countries. If Saudi Arabia is excluded, the figure drops to 5.3 mbd - 56%.
My friendly country list includes, in order of importance of imports into the USA:-
Canada, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Nigeria, Angola, the UK, Kuwait, Virgin Islands, Norway, Netherlands, Colombia and Brazil.
Mr Stelzer should say which of the above count as enemies of the USA (apart from Saudi Arabia). Anybody who won't subsidise American fuel profligacy by selling them oil at dirt-cheap prices, perhaps?

Michael Smith, Southampton, UK

Errrr... Nuclear power is very unlikely to ever replace fossil fuels for transport..

Scamp, Aberdeenshire,