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They recently found the largest oil fields in the world under the Golan Heights, and I don't think those have come online yet. So, I don't think we are quite at

They recently found the largest oil fields in the world under the Golan Heights, and I don't think those have come online yet. So, I don't think we are quite at peak oil, yet.

doodlebugging 4y ago
>They recently found the largest oil fields in the world under the Golan Heights There is no way anything under the Golan Heights comes close to the largest oilfields in the world. The Golan Heights only cover an area of about 690 square miles. The Ghawar Field in Saudi Arabia is more than 3200 square miles by itself. It is around 85m thick, and with the field described in your sources being 350m the math doesn't work in your favor especially when you consider that the entirety of the formation they claim to have discovered would have to be productive over the full extent of the Golan Heights. That is unlikely especially in light of their most recent updates shown below. The articles that I could find describing Golan Heights discoveries all use hyperbolic descriptions of oil potential combined with selected messianic prophecies of what it means for Israel and the world as relates to Old Testament scripture. I spent 40 years in the oil and gas business including several years working on data from the Eastern Mediterranean acquired as a joint venture between countries bordering the region. This geophysical work resulted in significant gas well discoveries in the region. Oil is found with those wells as expected but not in life-changing quantities to the best of my knowledge. None of the partner countries will be self-sufficient as a result of those discoveries. Until he died, there was a local geologist who became somewhat famous for his attempts to find oil mentioned in the Bible. His plan was to help fulfill prophecy by discovering the oil that would make Israel self-sufficient and bring about the second Temple. He worked for years spending lots of other people's money and Israel still was not self-sufficient. The oil discovery that you refer to is not being produced today and may not even be commercial. Add to that the fact that the well(s) were drilled in territory recognized to belong to Syria and cracks form in the story. Then you start to look at the players involved - the company is Genie Energy based in New Jersey. (from Wikipedia - this line gives a bit of historical information about their efforts) > In November 2017, the company announced that it suspended its exploratory drilling program as the well's target zone does not contain commercially producible quantities of oil or natural gas.[23] The link to the article [23] cited in Wikipedia: [23] https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/genie-energy-suspends-exploratory-oil-and-gas-drilling-program-in-northern-israel-300558113.html https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/genie-energy-suspen... Their strategic advisory board has these common names (from Wikipedia) > Dick Cheney since 2009 (former vice president of the United States), Rupert Murdoch (media mogul and chairman of News Corp), James Woolsey (former CIA director), Larry Summers (former head of the US Treasury), Bill Richardson (former Governor of New Mexico, ex-ambassador to the United Nations and United States Energy Secretary), Michael Steinhardt, Jacob Rothschild, and Mary Landrieu, former United States Senator from Louisiana. Frankly this looks like a great collection of right-wing evangelicals about whom this great song was written: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lg8B767itf0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lg8B767itf0
- irthomasthomas 4y ago
  Thanks for the incisive response. It is good to be reminded that chaps like > Dick Cheney since 2009 (former vice president of the United States), Rupert Murdoch (media mogul and chairman of News Corp), James Woolsey (former CIA director), Larry Summers (former head of the US Treasury), Bill Richardson (former Governor of New Mexico, ex-ambassador to the United Nations and United States Energy Secretary), Michael Steinhardt, Jacob Rothschild, and Mary Landrieu, former United States Senator from Louisiana are just as prone to be taken in by wild schemes as the rest of us mortals.
  - doodlebugging 4y ago
    You're welcome. As soon as I saw the mention of Israel having the world's largest oil field I had to dig into that. I have been reading several industry publications regularly for decades and have never seen that claim made in any of them. The only time you see Israeli oil exploration mentioned it is usually in this same context - a relatively small operator is exploring for the oil mentioned in the Old Testament that, once it is found, will make Israel rich and no longer dependent on foreign sources and this discovery, along with other events, will usher in the second coming of Jesus. This theme is very popular and almost universally allies Jewish owner/investors funding operations in partnership with American evangelical Christians who invest or provide expertise and/or equipment. These people are glad to associate with anything that helps Jesus find his way back. To them, Jesus already has the ticket in his cart and only needs to complete the transaction. Sufficient oil to power Israel at a level greater than her traditional enemies is seen as an inducement. One problem is that the line between friend and enemy in that region is no longer a sharply drawn line from a fine-point pen in dark ink. It has become a fat, multi-hued crayon line over the last several decades with convenient alliances formed among those who had been traditional adversaries as neighboring nations increasingly work toward common goals. Like I mentioned, Israel does produce natural gas now from a regional field that is also seeing development by Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Gaza, and Cyprus. Turkey also may be involved and likely would also be working to control gas produced by Greece and Cyprus. Anyway, natural gas quantities sufficient to decrease the region's alliance on supplies from Russia or other central Asian nations exist and exports of surplus gas to Europe could replace some of the gas formerly bought from Russia. Interestingly enough, eastern Ukraine has tremendous natural gas potential so that, if it were drilled and commercialized, they could become the low-cost provider to Europe. Western companies were planning to drill and frack and then revolutions happened, territory was seized, wars are being fought. Oil shows in Israel are less common since the geologic history makes natural gas more likely due to high thermal maturation (it was cooked off over the millenia leaving gas behind). There is oil in and around Israel. So far though, it is not found in quantities large enough to support commercialization. That's why I replied. I needed to know whether I had missed anything important in my reading.

They recently found the largest oil fields in the world under the Golan Heights, and I don't think those have come online yet. So, I don't think we are quite at peak oil, yet.

doodlebugging 4y ago

>They recently found the largest oil fields in the world under the Golan Heights There is no way anything under the Golan Heights comes close to the largest oilfields in the world. The Golan Heights only cover an area of about 690 square miles. The Ghawar Field in Saudi Arabia is more than 3200 square miles by itself. It is around 85m thick, and with the field described in your sources being 350m the math doesn't work in your favor especially when you consider that the entirety of the formation they claim to have discovered would have to be productive over the full extent of the Golan Heights. That is unlikely especially in light of their most recent updates shown below. The articles that I could find describing Golan Heights discoveries all use hyperbolic descriptions of oil potential combined with selected messianic prophecies of what it means for Israel and the world as relates to Old Testament scripture. I spent 40 years in the oil and gas business including several years working on data from the Eastern Mediterranean acquired as a joint venture between countries bordering the region. This geophysical work resulted in significant gas well discoveries in the region. Oil is found with those wells as expected but not in life-changing quantities to the best of my knowledge. None of the partner countries will be self-sufficient as a result of those discoveries. Until he died, there was a local geologist who became somewhat famous for his attempts to find oil mentioned in the Bible. His plan was to help fulfill prophecy by discovering the oil that would make Israel self-sufficient and bring about the second Temple. He worked for years spending lots of other people's money and Israel still was not self-sufficient. The oil discovery that you refer to is not being produced today and may not even be commercial. Add to that the fact that the well(s) were drilled in territory recognized to belong to Syria and cracks form in the story. Then you start to look at the players involved - the company is Genie Energy based in New Jersey. (from Wikipedia - this line gives a bit of historical information about their efforts) > In November 2017, the company announced that it suspended its exploratory drilling program as the well's target zone does not contain commercially producible quantities of oil or natural gas.[23] The link to the article [23] cited in Wikipedia: [23] https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/genie-energy-suspends-exploratory-oil-and-gas-drilling-program-in-northern-israel-300558113.html https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/genie-energy-suspen... Their strategic advisory board has these common names (from Wikipedia) > Dick Cheney since 2009 (former vice president of the United States), Rupert Murdoch (media mogul and chairman of News Corp), James Woolsey (former CIA director), Larry Summers (former head of the US Treasury), Bill Richardson (former Governor of New Mexico, ex-ambassador to the United Nations and United States Energy Secretary), Michael Steinhardt, Jacob Rothschild, and Mary Landrieu, former United States Senator from Louisiana. Frankly this looks like a great collection of right-wing evangelicals about whom this great song was written: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lg8B767itf0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lg8B767itf0

irthomasthomas 4y ago
Thanks for the incisive response. It is good to be reminded that chaps like > Dick Cheney since 2009 (former vice president of the United States), Rupert Murdoch (media mogul and chairman of News Corp), James Woolsey (former CIA director), Larry Summers (former head of the US Treasury), Bill Richardson (former Governor of New Mexico, ex-ambassador to the United Nations and United States Energy Secretary), Michael Steinhardt, Jacob Rothschild, and Mary Landrieu, former United States Senator from Louisiana are just as prone to be taken in by wild schemes as the rest of us mortals.
- doodlebugging 4y ago
  You're welcome. As soon as I saw the mention of Israel having the world's largest oil field I had to dig into that. I have been reading several industry publications regularly for decades and have never seen that claim made in any of them. The only time you see Israeli oil exploration mentioned it is usually in this same context - a relatively small operator is exploring for the oil mentioned in the Old Testament that, once it is found, will make Israel rich and no longer dependent on foreign sources and this discovery, along with other events, will usher in the second coming of Jesus. This theme is very popular and almost universally allies Jewish owner/investors funding operations in partnership with American evangelical Christians who invest or provide expertise and/or equipment. These people are glad to associate with anything that helps Jesus find his way back. To them, Jesus already has the ticket in his cart and only needs to complete the transaction. Sufficient oil to power Israel at a level greater than her traditional enemies is seen as an inducement. One problem is that the line between friend and enemy in that region is no longer a sharply drawn line from a fine-point pen in dark ink. It has become a fat, multi-hued crayon line over the last several decades with convenient alliances formed among those who had been traditional adversaries as neighboring nations increasingly work toward common goals. Like I mentioned, Israel does produce natural gas now from a regional field that is also seeing development by Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Gaza, and Cyprus. Turkey also may be involved and likely would also be working to control gas produced by Greece and Cyprus. Anyway, natural gas quantities sufficient to decrease the region's alliance on supplies from Russia or other central Asian nations exist and exports of surplus gas to Europe could replace some of the gas formerly bought from Russia. Interestingly enough, eastern Ukraine has tremendous natural gas potential so that, if it were drilled and commercialized, they could become the low-cost provider to Europe. Western companies were planning to drill and frack and then revolutions happened, territory was seized, wars are being fought. Oil shows in Israel are less common since the geologic history makes natural gas more likely due to high thermal maturation (it was cooked off over the millenia leaving gas behind). There is oil in and around Israel. So far though, it is not found in quantities large enough to support commercialization. That's why I replied. I needed to know whether I had missed anything important in my reading.