Oil – Less Than … , Conversations with ‘Pop’ Smith

Oil – Less Than … : From Life After The Oil Crash (lifeaftertheoilcrash.net) this 11/11/09 we picked up this interesting bit of information:

“… There’s been a pretty significant development in regards to peak Oil that’s worth drawing particular attention to. From yesterday’s UK Guardian, …The world is much closer to running out of oil than official estimates admit, according to a whistleblower at the International Energy Agency who claims [the agency] has been deliberately underplaying a looming shortage for fear of triggering panic buying.

The senior official claims the US has played an influential role in encouraging the watchdog to underplay the rate of decline from existing oil fields while      overplaying the chances of finding new reserves.”

A bit later in the article:

“Many inside the organization believe that maintaining oil supplies at even 90m To 95m barrels a day would be impossible but there are fears that panic could spread on the financial markets if the figures were brought down further.

A second senior IEA source, who has now left but was also unwilling to give his name, said a key rule at the organization was that it was ‘imperative not to anger the Americans” but the fact was that there was not as much oil in the world as had been admitted. “We have [already] entered the ‘peak oil’ zone. I think that the situation is really bad,” he added.

PH Comment: It seems that all governments want important information skewed to meet their particular ends and it’s with this in mind that we continue to recommend having a number of reliable sources for your information.

Life After The Oil Crash has proven itself in this regard to PrudentHome.

Conversations With ‘Pop’ Smith: Question – ‘Pop’, in our last conversation you said that you thought that we were in the “Long Recovery” and that you were preparing for sustained hard times. Are you prepared?

‘Pop’ Smith’: No, I’m not prepared but I am continuing to prepare given our time and resources. To give you an idea of what we’re doing this winter;

1. We’re expanding and preparing our garden area to more than twice the small size we had this past spring
2. We’ve just finished an inventory of the over-the-counter drugs in our family medical kit and separated those that need to be replaced (old or expired) ASAP.
3. We’re changing out our oldest stored water for fresh and expanding our reserves by about 20%.

This past week we set up a jar for pocket change to help finance an expected and expanded seed purchase for our 2010 spring garden as soon as the catalogs begin to arrive. We plan on wiping down our garden tool handles (wood) and walking sticks with linseed oil for preservation and protection. And finally, we’ve changed out some of our more recently stored honey into mason jars from less reliable containers.

Our goal is to accomplish some three small jobs each week and three larger jobs each quarter at a minimum.

Thanks, Pop.