Kuwaiti Burgan Oil Field Peaks
Rodney Hide buries head in the sand

Pumping oil for almost 60 years the Burgan oil field in Kuwait is the second largest in the world (second to the Saudi Ghawar field). In an interview with Bloomberg Farouk Al-Zanki Chairman of the Kuwait Oil Company described the field as "exhausted". After failed attempts to keep production at around 2 million barrels per day the production rate has fallen to around 1.7 million and the company is spending around 3 million per year simply to maintain current production. The future for the second largest oil producing field looks bleak.

With such revelations it is becoming increasingly difficult to deny the peak oil hypothesis yet Rodney Hide continues to scoff in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary. Makes one wonder what would have to actually happen for Rodney to accept that the times they are a changing. I imagine a NZ in the depths of depression, starved of the oil we are all totally dependant upon, hundreds of thousands unemployed with Rodney Hide arguing "it's all in people's heads, the market will provide"...

Hide's fallacious (straw man) attempt to refute todays claims based on incorrect argument's made in the 1940's is laughable (at least to any first year philosophy or logic student) - I guess that's what we call politics. I suggest Rodney Hide take a look at the most recent models provided by the ASPO. It is this data that requires refutation, it is this data that Hide needs to turn his attention to. Unfortunately in a typical Hidean post-hoc obfuscation we fail to detect any honest debate about peak oil. His entire rant is invalid. What we know about oil production, supply and demand today is considerably different to what we knew in the 40's.

Although much of the non OPEC oil has peaked and the production difficulties of the Arab nations are beginning to emerge those continuing to flatly deny the peak oil hypothesis are starting to develop an aura of abject stupidity. We can wish all we want, that won't change the facts.

Several nations (France, Sweden, Iceland) have already recognised peak oil and have began planning. We ought to join them.