kildonan

1,238 Billion Barrels of Oil Reserves: Is This an Oil Price Bubble?

Sorry Mr. Hayward, but those reserves don't belong to BP, ExxonMobil, Shell et al. They belong to those sovereign countries who may decide to enjoy the higher oil price rather than share it with you.

The major oil execs have been downplaying the rise in energy prices... why? Obviously they are no better than many others in predicting where oil prices are going, but perhaps it is in order to reduce sovereign countries' desire to control such valuable assets.

The USA in particular will (must) learn to use these assets (much of which is imported) more wisely in order to survive in the long run. Higher energy prices are here to stay and ANWR (if it ever is explored) is not the panacea that many believe. The cost to discover, produce, and transport at the same time as protect the environment, will be quite high. At the consumption rates of the USA, any proven reserves there would not last long in any case.

As others have stated, recoverable reserves - and the cost to recover those reserves is a critical issue that the author does not really consider. The sooner that investors in the western world really understand that although an integral part of the world economy, there are now many other major economies that will place huge demands on the world's reserves of all non-renewables.

This time it really is different. Commodities (Oil; Gas; Base Metals; Gold) - A once in a lifetime investment opportunity.