There are two articles in todays Financial Times concerning peak oil in Russia.
This looks like it will send oil much higher , perhaps to $200/bbl before the end of 2009.
Oil now floats around new record highs of $112/bbl, news from the FT indicates that may look cheap before long.
Leonid Fedun, the vice president of Lukoil, Russia's largest independent oil company, told the Financial Times he believed last year's Russian oil production of about 10m barrels per day was the highest he would see "in his lifetime". Russia is the world's second biggest oil producer
A Russian peak, in combination with the precipitous decline in Mexico's Cantarell field and likely near peak of Ghawir in Saudi Arabia tell me that the world's oil peak may be sharper than some (including myself) have anticipated.
In a seperate article, The FT continues:
Five years ago Russia's rapidly growing oil exports were seen as the cure for the US and Europe's addiction to Middle East oil, international oil company's most exciting potential source of revenue and the only thing that could quench China's insatiable new thirst.
But today Russia is bracing itself for it's first production decline in ten years.
This is an alarming development and should portend not only $200/bbl oil, but the hyper-inflation that goes with it.
Western civilization is in great peril and the big news is bitterness, bowling scores and breakfast beverages....
Here's a link