Gazprom: Last Major Gas Field Goes On Line

Europe depends on Russia for its natural gas, but, as Gazprom begins production at the last major field, it is unclear how much gas is left in Siberia. Developed fields are almost exhausted, and tapping new reserves involves huge technical difficulties.

Whether ‘Peak Oil’ is real or not, this type of story sheds light on what the world economy may be facing very soon: relatively scarce petroleum and gas resulting in very high prices. The linked Der Spiegel article goes on to explain that while worldwide gas fields may not be running dry, they may very well be reaching a point where extraction becomes exponentially more difficult and expensive.

“The days of easy gas production are gone,” says Bernhard Schmidt, the head of exploration for the Wintershall Group. A subsidiary of chemical giant BASF, Kassel-based Wintershall is the only German company currently involved in the development of Gazprom fields.

To date, gas fields in western Siberia have only been tapped to depths of little more than 1,500 meters (4,921 feet). Developing these reserves dating from the mid-Cretaceous period is relatively easy for mining experts. Schmidt, a native Austrian, calls the process “skimming the sugar off the top.”

With oil rich regions now facing the laborious and costly prospect of mining for deeper reserves, the economist in me is looking towards those fields with shallow oil remaining to be the chafing point between global powers in the years to come. An expanding China and India, Europe in supply flux, and America in constant want, there couldn’t be a more ominous sign of future trouble than a potential supply side shortage in the global market.

Study the following map well. It could - or has, as some contend - become the blueprint for war in the 21st century.

Just as a side note, Brazil recently made a huge discovery of light crude oil, which primes that country to become a formidable power in oil relations over the next quarter century and could lessen the impact of Middle East geopolitics on the global economy.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7086264.stm

Yeah, but chances are America will use some great grandson of the Monroe doctrine to secure that too..
War in Brazil?

What is the point of that?

No one is going to war with Brazil.

Brian’s Brain said:

No one is going to war with Brazil.

From the Financial Times:
Brazil poised for expansion of military capability
By Jonathan Wheatley in São Paulo and Benedict Mander in Caracas - Tuesday Nov 13 2007 18:25

The Brazilian government has embarked on a review of its defence capabilities that is likely to result in significant expenditure on fighter aircraft and a nuclear submarine.

The review comes as countries in the region, especially Venezuela, have announced large arms purchases.

Officials have played down media reports of a regional arms race. Nevertheless, analysts say “posturing” by Hugo Chávez, Venezuela’s president, has forced Brazil to think quickly about modernising its outdated forces.

“This has nothing to do with the rest of the region in the sense that Hugo Chávez has been buying weapons,” Mr Jobim said. “But a country like ours, which has to be a protagonist in the region, needs to have this [military capability].”

Expanding Brazil’s military capability would also bolster Brazil in its attempts to gain a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council and membership of the G8 group of industrialised nations.

Marcos Azambuja, a former Brazilian ambassador to Argentina and France and current director of Cebri, a foreign relations think-tank, said that, although Mr Chávez presented no direct threat to Brazil, “he is a threat to democracy and to civil order in South America. Brazil cannot allow itself to be so unprepared that it doesn’t have equipment in condition for use”.

As part of a $3bn contract with Russia, Venezuela has bought 100,000 Kalashnikov rifles, 53 helicopters and 24 Sukhoi fighter jets. The possible purchase of submarines has been rumoured.

The purchases appear at odds with the idea of an ever-closer civic-military union at the core of Mr Chávez’s “Bolivarian revolution”, which views “asymmetric warfare” as seen in Afghanistan or Iraq as the appropriate response to a hypothetical invasion.

As Venezuela builds its defences, Colombia and Chile have also made significant increases in military spending.

I didn’t say war ON Brazil, I said war IN Brazil.
Much like we’re currently at war IN Iraq, not necessarily ON it.
More often then not, one side of a conflict finds itself there simply because it calls the battlefield “home.”
The point being that if its our army in Brazil and not, say, China’s, chances are we’ll get a slightly better deal on oil prices.