As the world engaged in reminiscing Ahmed Zaki Yamani’s triumphant conquer of the energy market few noticed his latest crusade to warm fossil fuel powers that they needed to prepare for the end of an epoch. Knowledgeable as he was of geopolitics; the transformative ability of technology and the limits of a contaminating single source energy system he had began to direct young generations into cracking the secrets of sustainability. To his mid, s the world perfected its economic machinery and technology transformed social life, energy systems mutated into superior stages to reflect progress. And the signs were ever more prescient; Climate change heralded the fact that the fossil fuel era was reaching its end. As he brilliantly put it in an interview with the UK based daily The Guardian “ The Stone Age did not end because the world ran out of stone, and the Oil Age will not run because the world runs out of oil”.
His concern was that few of the nations to be most affected by the passing seemed to be aware of the demands to be placed upon the quality of leadership and the quality of the bureaucracy entrusted with the task to execute a post fossil fuel strategy. Besides the Emirates and Saudi Arabia which have judiciously executed investment strategies to preserve their well being when oil has to share a space in the worlds energy matrix with significant solar; hydro; wind and waste to energy sources.
Should one look south Yamani’s fears turn into nightmares. Venezuela the country with the largest oil reserves in the world has failed to invest oil income in other activities that are of strategic value to the digital economy. Worse it dilapidated and brought to an absolute halt oil production. This was anticipated by Yamani when he indicated to the Guardian “ In Venezuela it is a new government with a new philosophy. When they came they stopped investment in upstream and the capacity of Venezuela came down. Instead of having 800,000 barrels a day surplus, it disappeared. Now it cannot produce any more .’ Curiously enough Venezuela’s regime claims today that collapse in oil production is the product of economic sanctions imposed by the United States against its leaders who all happen to be corrupt and some engage with gusto in perpetrating crimes against humanity. Yamani’s interview was posted in 2001 when not only there were no sanctions but Western powers were trying to contain the potential Venezuelan originated damages by attempting to engage the regime in conversations and cooperation.
The future indeed seems to be clearer today than at the dawn of this century. As the United States rose to fossil fuel prominence by virtue of percolating the Permian basin it will be a determining player in the post fossil fuel era. The basin is a large sedimentary depository located in the Southwestern region of the United States. Cracking and fracking the basin has sent OPEC’s market share to about 30% from 70% in the last decade of the past century. And while 80% of reserves lie within the territories of OPEC countries only the most efficient will preserve their market share.
In the case of Venezuela , as the Wall Street Journal recently indicated its oil treasure might well be kept under the earth forever should the country fail to spin out of current chaos and seize the opportunities that the marriage of oil with other sources open to development.
His concern was that few of the nations to be most affected by the passing seemed to be aware of the demands to be placed upon the quality of leadership and the quality of the bureaucracy entrusted with the task to execute a post fossil fuel strategy. Besides the Emirates and Saudi Arabia which have judiciously executed investment strategies to preserve their well being when oil has to share a space in the worlds energy matrix with significant solar; hydro; wind and waste to energy sources.
Should one look south Yamani’s fears turn into nightmares. Venezuela the country with the largest oil reserves in the world has failed to invest oil income in other activities that are of strategic value to the digital economy. Worse it dilapidated and brought to an absolute halt oil production. This was anticipated by Yamani when he indicated to the Guardian “ In Venezuela it is a new government with a new philosophy. When they came they stopped investment in upstream and the capacity of Venezuela came down. Instead of having 800,000 barrels a day surplus, it disappeared. Now it cannot produce any more .’ Curiously enough Venezuela’s regime claims today that collapse in oil production is the product of economic sanctions imposed by the United States against its leaders who all happen to be corrupt and some engage with gusto in perpetrating crimes against humanity. Yamani’s interview was posted in 2001 when not only there were no sanctions but Western powers were trying to contain the potential Venezuelan originated damages by attempting to engage the regime in conversations and cooperation.
The future indeed seems to be clearer today than at the dawn of this century. As the United States rose to fossil fuel prominence by virtue of percolating the Permian basin it will be a determining player in the post fossil fuel era. The basin is a large sedimentary depository located in the Southwestern region of the United States. Cracking and fracking the basin has sent OPEC’s market share to about 30% from 70% in the last decade of the past century. And while 80% of reserves lie within the territories of OPEC countries only the most efficient will preserve their market share.
In the case of Venezuela , as the Wall Street Journal recently indicated its oil treasure might well be kept under the earth forever should the country fail to spin out of current chaos and seize the opportunities that the marriage of oil with other sources open to development.
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