Basic HTML Version
PROVEN
OILRESERVES
BY
ENDOF 1973
Proven
oil reserves differ from
estimated,
or
potential
reserves. Both are loose figures, but
the former is more accurate in that it is based
on evidence from exploratory drilling or pro–
duction activities of various regions. Many
world areas have never had exploratory dril–
ling but are suspected of containing oil , but in
unknown quantities. The Middle Eastern and
North African " proven" oil reserves are esti–
mated around 400 billion barreis, potential
reserves over 600 billion . The world' s esti–
mated recoverable reserves could be over two
trillion barreis. lf world oil production and
consumption continue at the present rate,
" proven " reserves will hardly last another
40 years.
Oil reserves indicated
in billions of barreis.
14.2 14.2
--
WESTERN
SOUTHEAST
EUROPE
ASIA
12
daily, once the hotly contested Alas–
kan pipeline is built, but even that,
coupled with the production from
otfshore oil deposits, will not be able
to meet foreseeable needs. Until
new sources of energy are found
and developed, it is difficult to
imagine how tbe Urúted States
could fi11 its own energy require–
ments without importing much
more oil, principally from the
Middle East.
David Freeman, a former energy
expert for the Nixon administration,
even before the current crisis, put
the issue in perspective: "Our rates
of consumption are so large that we
can see the bottom of the barre!."
This does not mean that oil re–
serves are still not plentiful. Vast
new oil fields are being surveyed
and charted. The fact is, Iran alone
plans to more than double her
1970
production of
19i
million tons dur–
ing the next decade. Until recentLy,
Saudi Arabia had even more gran–
diose plans and was shooting for
20 million barreis a day by 1980,
or one billion tons a year!
The real oil problem is not oil po–
tentia!, but oil
politics.
Leonard Mosley, author of
Power
Play: Oil in the Middle East,
puts it
bluntly: "What most worries West–
ern strategists when they con–
template the part the Middle East
is
destined to play in the world fue!
situation is neither the expense nor
the shortage of oil, but the increas–
ing tendency of Arab militants to at–
tempt to use oi l as a political
weapon" (page 414).
PLAIN TRUTH February 1974
·