Note: we shouldn’t be surprised with anything we see. While we waited for collapse, the world has been transformed right in front of us, and our entire society and its philosophy have been reconstructed. Why have a collapse now when most of what was considered normal 50 years ago no longer applies? This rebuilding included the remaking of the mainline Christian church into an organ of expediency and convenience.
The president of a seminary founded in 1836 on the “infallible” Word of God says in a new interview she doesn’t believe in the bodily resurrection of Christ, the power of prayer, a literal heaven, or miracles.
Serene Jones, president of Union Theological Seminary in New York, made the comments in an interview with Nicholas Kristof of The New York Times for an article published Easter weekend. Although the author’s intent may have been to inspire readers, it also served to spotlight the leftward drift of many seminaries.
I do not get surprised with any of this stuff. In fact, I no longer really read much of it. [Not because it isn’t important, but because it is already obvious].
If I were a psychopath, I wouldn’t be breaking into people’s houses and murdering. If I were a psychopath, I would run for political office, get a badge and a gun, or wear a judicial robe.
Perhaps I would become a high-powered attorney or a CEO of a large corporation. Psychopaths with high IQs move up the ladders of influence. Maybe I would become a cold, heartless medical doctor.
[Perhaps I would appear in the alt-financial media as an expert who would preach collapse, while I sold millions of dollars a year in useless services to my scared followers].
If I were a Jesus hater and wanted to inflict maximum damage on the souls here on this planet Earth, I would become a priest or a cardinal in the Catholic Church. Perhaps I would move up the ladders of influence and become the Pope.
I would maybe become a well-known preacher and appear on TV telling people that Jesus loves everybody and that we are all the same. I would be talking about having the best life here on this planet Earth. I would misquote scripture and say that condoning sodomite marriages is what Jesus would do. Perhaps I would tell my followers that Jesus would be a socialist today.
Most importantly, I would tell my followers that the concept of hell is just an allegory, and that it doesn’t exist.
If you are a Christian, like I am, does any of this stuff sound familiar? If I were a member of a secret society and gave my life over to Satan, perhaps I would become the preacher of a church down the street who would promote yoga and meditation to it unwitting worshipers. I would say that only people like Stalin or Hitler go to hell.
Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.
Matthew 10:16
I think you get the picture. The world is run by the secret societies and psychopaths move up the levers of power. When I read business psychology articles discussing that psychopathy can be a beneficial attribute for business executives, I think we have already reached the obvious point in humanity’s transformation.
Armstrong says we need to use his Socrates service to survive
Copywriting is the act of writing text for the purpose of advertising or other forms of marketing. The product, called copy, is written content that aims to increase brand awareness and ultimately persuade a person or group to take a particular action.
Copywriting - Wikipedia
A stopped clock is right twice a day
To keep up on the latest disingenuous catastrophe shill and warn my readers of the latest clickbait stories and fear-based advertisements and copywriting, I scan the alt-financial media sites when my stomach can handle it. In a world where the ostensibly objective blogger is only a self-serving copywriter, we need to use caution with just about anything we come across on the internet. Here is a blog post I came across earlier today from Martin Armstrong titled, Bank of Japan & the Bond Crisis.
The Great Financial Unknown is now upon us. After 10 years of Quantitative Easing, the European Central Bank (ECB) in Europe owns 40% of the national debts in the EU and it can neither sell them nor stop buying without creating a Panic in Interest Rates. Likewise, the Bank of Japan (BoJ) owns between 70% and 80% of the ETF bond market in Japan.
It gets better. Armstrong says the BOJ has admitted that it has destroyed the bond market, yet I do not see this admission in the BOJ announcement.
The statement at the end of the announcement on the last page on its monetary policy has left traders in shock. This appears that the BoJ realizes that it now effectively has destroyed its bond market and realizes that there is not only the end of a free market, but there is a contagion of surrounding lack of liquidity.
The great unknown is indeed upon Martin Armstrong, because his predictions over the past several years have been incorrect with respect to interest rates and most other asset classes that are priced off the yield curve. Of course, he neglects to tell the naive reader, who believes what he spews as objective fact, that he is just shilling his portfolio of trading and investing services. The sensationalism is there to create the need and reel-in the customer.
We have discussed that the BOJ has been successfully employing various types of QE programs for about 25 years. Despite Japan’s pitiful demographics, their monetary system somehow holds it together.
Armstrong is just a master showman and has figured out that the more he scares you the better chance he has of upselling his expensive services. I have been reading his blog since just after the 2013 gold crash and he has been warning of sovereign debt catastrophe for six years.
Both the ECB and the BoJ are completely trapped. They have destroyed their respective bond markets meaning they can no longer even tolerate a free market with respect to interest rates. They cannot stop buying government debt for there is no bid at these rates. We are far beyond every economic theory ever contemplated.
What a profound concept, Mr. Armstrong. We have been discussing this idea on my blog for free for years. Our point is that this was not unintentional – it was all part of the agenda.
How we deal with this government-created financial crisis will be extremely interesting. This is were opinion will just not suffice. There is no reference in history to turn to. This is where Socrates can guide us through the absolute chaos that we face.
It’s interesting, because Armstrong always talks of cycles and that his services demonstrate how to profit from his observation of these cycles. Yet he tells us there has never been anything like this in history, so we need to subscribe to his Socrates service for guidance. Of course, you see the circular argument.
I admit that Armstrong was correct on the U.S. dollar and the domestic stock market, so I give credit when it’s due. But we have been discussing the same strategy for years. Plus, we got the direction of interest rates correct. I also tell you that the governments are not the perpetrators in this instance. The governments are the victims in some respects and are just the customer service windows for the elite owners of the central banks.
It is impossible to fully trust investment advice, including Armstrong’s, if:
They do not see that there is a design behind this and they discount, out of hand, any talk of conspiracy,
Are trying to sell any trading or investment services.
The best part of my blog is that it’s free of any conflict of interest and we have been making money. Since I started writing for Henry Makow in 2013, I have been making enough money to never have to work again. I told the readers exactly what I was doing. My goal is to have my readers achieve the same result. If I listened to Armstrong’s advice I would have made a lot less money and would given him money and credibility.
Shale oil will see massive consolidation over the next five to ten years. The most powerful firms with their low costs of capital will rule.
Note to reader: This article serves as a warning to those who continually underestimate and denigrate the long-term viability of the domestic oil industry. At some level, I have to believe these common refrains get traction in the alt-financial media, because of the alt-financial media’s contempt of everything “American.” This contempt will continue to prove costly to these investors as their macro investment decisions will be placed in opposition of the most likely outcome.
A number of oil firms make billions a year in the United States
Chevron’s and OXY’s competing bids for Anadarko petroleum is just the beginning of a mass consolidation in the shale oil industry as the smaller, poorly funded frackers and drillers will be sold to the well-funded players. Those with access to cheap capital will clean up. These multinational firms will eventually gain an effective control over the entire shale oil sector. These large firms waited until rates of return were attractive enough, given their lower costs of capital, and are now ready to jump on the best independent drillers with their prime real estate.
There are four over simplifications that the alt-financial media make.
The assumption that all barrels produced in any particular shale oil region cost about the same to produce.
There aren’t many (or any) firms that can make money in shale oil.
The U.S. oil industry is built on cheap money and that once the cheap money disappears, the industry will just collapse.
Their failure to fully comprehend the differences in the costs of capital between firms. The start up P&E costs in the shale oil regions are relatively small, so there are many small producers with high costs of capital. This tends to drown out the firms with cheaper costs of capital.
Let me explain that these assumptions have proven deleterious to many dollar bears. The worst aspect of this erroneous analysis will be their continual underestimation in the power of the U.S. dollar and the domestic economy.
Exxon Mobil is boosting its projected growth of oil and gas production in the Permian Basin and says the field can be profitable even at lower crude prices.
The Irving-based company said that as soon as 2024 it expects to produce the equivalent of more than 1 million barrels of oil per day in the basin, which straddles western Texas and New Mexico, up from a forecast of 600,000 barrels by 2025.
Exxon has 48 drilling rigs in the basin and plans to raise that to 55 by the end of this year. The oil giant estimates that it is sitting on about 10 billion barrels of oil in the basin.
Its investments in the Permian Basin are expected to produce double-digit returns, even at low oil prices, the company said in a statement. At a $35 per barrel oil price, it said Permian production will have an average return of more than 10 percent.
Exxon is the largest publicly traded international oil and gas company, with $279 billion in revenue in 2018.
The old shale oil industry was a money loser, not the new
If we look into the past it seems to be clear that the shale oil industry has not generated any lasting profit, and in fact, we can conclude that including debt servicing costs and bad debt writedowns, the U.S. shale oil industry has never been in the black.
But this is in the rear-view mirror, as the extraction technology continues to improve and the new advances are shared around the existing drillers. As this advancing technology is leveraged and becomes more widespread, the largest oil firms have begun to consolidate their power and exert their control over the entire shale oil industry. Firms such as Exxon, Chevron, and BP, bring much lower costs of capital and cheaper P&E capabilities to the mix.
While the independent U.S. drillers have been cutting spending in response to years of lackluster returns, the oil majors and large independents are expanding in Texas’s Permian region. These large firms are already generating billions in free cash flow a year from domestic production, with much of it coming from the Permain Basin. Indeed, the major oil companies plan to spend about 16 percent more on U.S. drilling and completions in 2019 versus last year, while independent exploration and production (E&P) companies are expected to cut spending by around 11 percent, according to financial services firm Cowen & Co.
Chevron has been producing oil and gas from the Permian since the early 1920s and recently hauled out its five billionth barrel. However, the company estimates that it’s sitting on another 11.2 billion barrels of oil equivalent (BOE) in the Permian, which should provide it with years of growth.
It’s that Permian oil growth engine that makes Chevron such a compelling stock. The company believes that the region will not only supply it with needle-moving production growth but expand its margins and profitability. In Chevron’s view, its Permian Basin position can help fuel 30% compound annual growth in free cash flow through 2020, which would lead its peer group.
EOG generated $1.7 in free cash flow last year; mostly from oil shale.
EOG Resources is probably one of the top producers in the Shale oil region. According to their 2018 earnings press release, EOG produced 430,300 Bopd in the fourth quarter, which was a 17 percent increase to the same prior year period. EOG generated $2.1 billion of discretionary cash flow and incurred total expenditures of $1.5 billion in the fourth quarter 2018. After considering cash exploration and development expenditures, excluding acquisitions of $1.3 billion and dividend payments of $127 million, the company generated free cash flow during the fourth quarter of $637 million. For the full year 2018 EOG generated a company record $1.7 billion of free cash flow.
COP produced 397k bopd in the lower 48 states for 2018. It produced 436k bopd for 2018 Q4
For ConocoPhillips, the “Lower 48” represents their largest segment based on production – beating out the Asia/Middle East region by about 20k bopd. The company’s large onshore Lower 48 position of 10.3 million net acres, much of it held by production, gives access to scalable, low cost of supply inventory that can generate substantial future production growth. The Lower 48 segment is comprised of two regions covering the Gulf Coast and Great Plains. Their current major focus areas for the Lower 48 include the Eagle Ford, Bakken and Permian trends.
These are just a few of the large firms with low costs of capital that have been and will continue to profitably produce shale oil at low cost and high profit. If we one day do arrive at peak oil, I can bet you that these firms will stand to make a lot more money. Don’t fall into the trap of reading ZeroHedge with its “analysis” of the rising tide of debt writedowns in the oil patch and concluding the whole thing is going to collapse under higher interest rates. This naive approach has come at a steep cost to many followers of the alt-financial media at the absolute worst time.
If you think that high interest rates will be the undoing of shale oil, just imagine how high inflation will be at that point. Either way, the large firms will profit handsomely.
I have uploaded an April 26th Market update. Click here to go to the show archives page to listen and to view any supporting links or you can listen on the link below.
-The U.S. economy continues to outperform as GDP growth comes in higher than expected.
-The BEA stated that the federal “shutdown” shaved 0.3% off the GDP headline number (3.2%). This would have produced a 3.5% SAAR growth rate.
-My original thesis from back in 2012 remains in effect. I wrote about this on Henry Makow’s website. If anything the trend has been reinforced with the United States’s higher energy output.
-Higher sovereign debt levels cause higher asset prices. It is a self-generating dynamo. The PPT does not have to go into the market much (only during times like late last December). Higher UST levels accommodate higher asset prices, which support higher debt levels at lower interest rates. -The Fed can step in and absorb the extra UST issuance, which keeps rates low.
-Despite higher asset prices, inflation stays low, because higher debt levels are a deflationary force, while the financial shell of assets stays separate from the real economy.
-In isolation, the Fed should be more hawkish, but it cannot for two reasons:
1) The rest of the developed global economy can no longer afford to deal with higher rates.
2) The global economy continues to underperform the U.S.
-Thus, the U.S. economy and asset markets are the beneficiary of dovish Fed policy.
-As the global economy flounders, global price pressures remain subdued. The U.S. economy is benefiting from a ultra-dovish Fed and low inflation from the oversupplied global economy.
Lies, fear, and gaslighting fuel the new world order
The true vertical depths of many oil wells are over 20,000 feet. That is a long way down for living matter to become petroleum. Could it be that oil is not really a fossil fuel?
The foundation of the new world order is built on fear, uncertainty, and sophistry. The common falsehoods that power the new world order are injected into the system to create cognitive dissonance and double-mindedness. When these lies are repeated enough they become conventional wisdom and are accepted as truth.
I received an email from a subscriber:
Hello sir,
[I] just listened to your podcast and read some of your articles. I agree with you that websites such as Zero Hedge and people like Martin Armstrong must be taken with a grain of salt.
I don’t disagree with you that they will continue to inflate the financial [markets] making life ever more difficult for everyday people. My question for you is where do resource constraints fit into your viewpoint on all this?
All of this would end it seems to me as oil becomes more difficult to be had at a cheap price or the dollar loses its reserve currency. Any viewpoints on the recent upsurge in populist politics? I know both have been co-opted by larger interests, but at some point it seems that people will catch on.
Thank you for your time.
I get it; these were concerns of mine in the past. So, let’s look at a few of the lies promoted by the NWO. These ideas may seem trivial to some, but they have been key in getting many aspects of the control mechanisms of the NWO in place.
Peak oil has already been delayed over 40 years
Despite calls since the 1950’s to the contrary, world oil production continues to grow. The globalists scare us all the way up.
My former, unwashed self used to believe that oil and natural gas were produced biotically. I never doubted the media and my biology teachers; they are the experts. I was conditioned to assume that hydrocarbons were the byproduct of formerly living organisms. Of course this concerned me, since it meant we would soon run out of oil and gas, and the economy and our way of life would collapse forever. Now that I understand how the new world order operates, some simple observations will refute these silly ideas.
According to Wikipedia; in 1956, M. King Hubbert created and first used the models behind peak oil to predict that United States oil production would peak between 1965 and 1971.
In 1956, Hubbert calculated that the world held an ultimate cumulative of 1.25 trillion barrels, of which 124 billion had already been produced. He projected that world oil production would peak at about 12.5 billion barrels per year, sometime around the year 2000. He repeated the prediction in 1962. World oil production surpassed his predicted peak in 1967 and kept rising; world oil production did not peak on or near the year 2000, and for the year 2012 was 26.67 billion barrels, more that twice the peak rate Hubbert had projected back in 1956.
Each subsequent peak oil scenario attempts to reconcile the NWO agenda of manufactured scarcity with hard data. The world is awash in oil and production continues to grow. It seems that oil and natural gas are the only two earthly resources that never seem to be depleted. The global consumption of hydrocarbons continues to escalate, because they are still relatively inexpensive to produce. If their costs rise further, the world possesses the technology to transfer its power consumption to some other source. But why bother when the cheap hydrocarbon sources seem to grow?
Shell probably holds the record for the deepest (by true vertical depth) well for commercial oil production at their Stones project. Operating in around 2,900 metres (9,500 feet) of water, it produces oil and gas from reservoirs around 8,077 metres (26,500 feet) below sea level with a current production of around 50,000 barrels of crude per day. While there are many other oil wells with total lengths that far exceed this distance, this takes into account their horizontal lengths.
Regardless, Soviet geologists as far back as the 1960’s determined that most of their oil was of mineral form, which meant that the oil was produced abiotically. While there were microbial markers, they theorized that it was contamination. Thus, much of the drilling in the former Soviet Union and after was purposely designed to take advantage of this. Moreover, the Soviet geologists observed that many of their deep oil reservoirs seemed to replenish themselves after a few years.
In the West, there have been numerous reports in recent times of oil and gas fields not running out at the expected time, but instead showing a higher content of hydrocarbons after they had already produced more than the initially estimated amount. This has been seen in the Middle East, in the deep gas wells of Oklahoma, on the Gulf of Mexico coast, and in other places.
It is this apparent refilling during production that has been responsible for the series of gross underestimates to reserves that have been published time and again. The most memorable instance being the one during the early-1970’s OPEC crisis that firmly predicted the world would exhaust its oil and gas reserves by the late 1980’s; a prediction that produced a manufactured energy crisis and with that a huge shift in the wealth of nations.
Keep in mind that the OPEC crisis of the 1970’s was designed to help establish the U.S. dollar as the global reserve currency. Since the OPEC nations agreed to transact in the greenback, the United States needed to run structural deficits to supply the world with its currency. The elites of the new world order were able to flood the world with the dollar when oil prices skyrocketed.
Refilling oil reservoirs once thought to be depleted is an item of the greatest economic significance and also a key to understanding the sources of all this petroleum. There is no way that biotic oil, oil produced from previously living matter can replenish these sources so quickly.
NASA says Titan’s hydrocarbon reserves are 300x the earth’s
According to Cassini data, scientists announced on February 13, 2008, that Titan hosts within its polar lakes “hundreds of times more natural gas and other liquid hydrocarbons than all the known oil and natural gas reserves on Earth.” The desert sand dunes along the equator, while devoid of open liquid, nonetheless hold more organics than all of Earth’s coal reserves. It has been estimated that the visible lakes and seas of Titan contain about 300 times the volume of Earth’s proven oil reserves
I didn’t know that Titan had so much living matter. Perhaps Titan’s hydrocarbon reserves were produced some other way.
Malthusian theory has been wrong for over 200 years, but is still viewed by many as valid
Malthus drafted up his theory 220 years ago, but he failed to account for the growth in farming efficiencies and technologies and failing fertility ratesCrop prices continue to lag inflation as harvest yields continue to climb
According to Wikipedia, Thomas Robert Malthus believed there were two types of “checks” that in all times and places kept population growth in line with the growth of the food supply: “preventive checks”, such as moral restraints and restricting marriage against persons suffering poverty or perceived as defective, and “positive checks”, which lead to premature death such as disease, starvation and war, resulting in what is called a Malthusian catastrophe. The catastrophe would return population to a lower, more “sustainable”, level. Malthusianism has been linked to a variety of political and social movements, but almost always refers to advocates of population control.
While the mindset of Malthusianism continues to hold sway with many in positions of power, it has been shown to be inaccurate, since there has been a marked reduction in the global human fertility growth rate. At the same time, there have been tremendous advances in agricultural and livestock raising techniques.
Many modern Malthusian proponents still believe that the basic concept of population growth eventually outstripping resources is still fundamentally valid, and “positive checks” are still likely in humanity’s future if there is no action to curb population growth. Hence, we get the calls by many of the elites for forced birth control via food, vaccines, etc.
Livestock producer prices have consistently lagged inflation for decades.
Perhaps, sometime in the not-so-distant future, Malthus will be vindicated. But, based on the prices of crops and livestock, there is still more than enough food for everyone in the world. In fact, based on the accelerating global obesity rate, there is too much food supply.
The U.S. dollar has a number of attributes that make it a viable currency reserve
The United States is now the world’s energy powerhouse and this trend will only reinforce itself over the next several years. Ask Chevron what they thought when they proposed buying Anadarko Petroleum for $50 billion – a nearly 40% premium to market. The extraction technology grows mightily and the energy producing areas in the United States that were once thought to be depleted have been miraculously replenished. I have lived in NM and CO and seen firsthand how oil prospecting has exploded. This is for real. All those dollars will be needed to buy U.S. oil.
This is one of the three primary reasons why I am dollar bullish. The second reason is structurally specific to the monetary system. The US dollar in its role as a reserve necessitates many foreigners to borrow in dollars. That keeps the dollar well supported as there are not enough dollars overseas to pay off the loans. This system is so ingenious as it produces an artificial dollar shortage. We see how the U.S. dollar index has been well supported all throughout this decade-long manufactured crisis.
The third reason why the dollar is well supported at these levels has to do with the U.S. economy and its relative strong performance when compared to the other developed nations. The U.S. can afford higher interest rates, because of its vibrant economic growth and elevated asset markets. Despite the Fed funds rate’s historically low level versus the economy, the Fed has more flexibility with regards to monetary policy. This interest rate differential has supported the dollar all decade and I do not see this trend ending any time soon.
There really is no place else to go right now. I know the alt-financial media followers have been conditioned to hate the dollar and the Fed, but when we look at the other currencies out there, the dollar is actually the best of the lot. The Chinese yuan is centrally managed and really is only functional when Chinese-based transactions are involved.
Perhaps the elites will decide to replace the greenback with something else, but the United States will not sit back on that. It will take some sort of force majeure as the catalyst and the elites are not ready for that. They have accomplished so much of their agenda by manufacturing last decade’s crisis and the dollar came out much stronger as a result. I see that the globalists have clearly decided to use the dollar for now.
The manufactured fallout of Populism; The nation-state will be an anachronism
The populist movement is kayfabe; Genuine voter frustration is channeled into a predetermined outcome
One final thought about global politics; the new world order will never stand for decentralization. Never. We have analyzed the Brexit vote in the past. We theorized that it would become a disaster and that England would never be allowed to leave. If it did, the globalists would make its existence a living hell, so that it would be an example to the other nations. The whole Brexit process was compromised from stem to stern with change agents and insiders who were put in place to sabotage the entire process. This is why I do not spend much time analyzing it, though it does present us with trading opportunities.
President Trump and the other populist change agents have been placed into their positions of power to undermine the nationalist political process, so that the result is a more connected global new world order. Even the term “populist” was chosen by the elites. What the world and the United States need is political and economic decentralization, but this will never happen again. I cannot tell you what is best for you, but if we can bring the vote and power base back closer to home, we have a fighting chance for self-determination. Any time we rely on the federal government or a power far from home to enact change, we only relinquish self-sovereignty.
When these populist change agents are done with their appointed tasks, the population will be ready for more global consolidation. The elites know what we are thinking and see that many people are frustrated with their circumstances, so they have responded by installing these Trump-type politicians to give us what we want. The result will be more frustration, lies, and broken dreams as the average person falls further behind.
Conclusion
Wells published this in 1940
While it is easy to conclude that the world cannot continue on its current trajectory, I submit to you that its doubters may be in for a long grind trying to be proven correct. Many generations have gone to their graves convinced that the end of humanity was just around the corner. I get it; I look at how degenerate and ungodly humanity has become and wonder how long it can all continue.
Last week, I went to a wedding dinner and sat next to my friend’s 11-year old son. During our conversation he began talking about the Illuminati. I asked him where he heard of that term and he said he picked it up from a video game he was playing. He also heard it discussed on a TV show. Talk about desensitizing the youth….
A common refrain I hear from the alt-media followers is that the people are waking up and are catching on to the ways of the new world order. But I ask you this; if most of humanity are still clueless to the basic underpinnings of the new world order, how or when will they “wake up?” I submit that they won’t and we need to accept this. Knowing the truth is very sobering, but it helps to make my life manageable. The worst part is that most of humanity is at total ease with the tenets of the new world order. If you are going to fight it, you will be engaging in a lonely battle.
Keep in mind that we are being trained by the elites through their satanic Netflix programming and new world order inculcation to embrace this nihilist mentality. Many Christians I communicate with analyze every daily event to gauge when the second coming will occur. I am sorry, but this world has the capacity to feed billions more people and the new world order has the ability to wear out the patience of the most high.
-The harsh critics of the private central banking system are sadly mistaken if they think this system is going to collapse.
-It actually is not that difficult to keep this system going. The central banks have proven themselves as worthy to the task. The global pool of investors now view the central banks as their partners.
-This system is designed to be satanic to its core and it’s purposely constructed for maximum soul stripping. Most people around the world prefer this system. It’s fit for degenerates and the ungodly.
-This current system is the same system described in Revelation. The wealth inequality going out into the future will be mind blowing. The vast majority of people will have nothing but debt, while the captains and the chiefs will own it all. The people will look to the government for help and socialism will expand greatly into the future.
-The central banks are clearly going to do whatever it takes to keep things going.
-Dow 30k coming soon? I predicted Dow 20k when the Dow was 16,500. The central banks are welcoming higher asset prices.
-I have been predicting lower interest rates. That’s what we are getting
The great unknown is indeed upon Martin Armstrong, because his predictions over the past several years have been incorrect with respect to interest rates and most other asset classes that are priced off the yield curve. Of course, he neglects to tell the naive reader, who believes what he spews as objective fact, that he is just shilling his portfolio of trading and investing services. The sensationalism is there to create the need and reel-in the customer.
Exxon Mobil is boosting its projected growth of oil and gas production in the Permian Basin and says the field can be profitable even at lower crude prices.
Chevron has been producing oil and gas from the Permian since the early 1920s and recently hauled out its five billionth barrel. However, the company estimates that it’s sitting on another 11.2 billion barrels of oil equivalent (BOE) in the Permian, which should provide it with years of growth.
Shell probably holds the record for the deepest (by true vertical depth) well for commercial oil production at their Stones project. Operating in around 2,900 metres (9,500 feet) of water, it produces oil and gas from reservoirs around 8,077 metres (26,500 feet) below sea level with a current production of around 50,000 barrels of crude per day. While there are many other oil wells with total lengths that far exceed this distance, this takes into account their horizontal lengths.
It is this apparent refilling during production that has been responsible for the series of gross underestimates to reserves that have been published time and again. The most memorable instance being the one during the early-1970’s OPEC crisis that firmly predicted the world would exhaust its oil and gas reserves by the late 1980’s; a prediction that produced a manufactured energy crisis and with that a huge shift in the wealth of nations.
