Saudi Prince: Fracking Is Threat To Kingdom

Saudi Prince: Fracking Is Threat To Kingdom


As the fracking revolution eases demand for the kingdom's oil and gas, a billionaire prince warns his nation to find new income.

9:49am UK, Monday 29 July 2013

http://media.skynews.com/media/image...-1-522x293.jpgA billionaire prince has warned Saudi Arabia of the fracking threat
A Saudi prince has warned that his oil-reliant nation is under threat because of fracking technology being developed elsewhere around the world.

Billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal said the Gulf Arab kingdom needed to reduce its reliance on crude oil and diversify its revenues.

His warning comes as rising shale energy supplies in the United States cut global demand for Saudi oil.

In an open letter to his country's oil minister Ali al Naimi and other government heads, published on Sunday via his Twitter account, Prince Alwaleed said demand for oil from Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) member states was "in continuous decline".

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State-owned Saudi Aramco was hit by a huge cyberattack last yearHe said Saudi Arabia's heavy dependence on oil was "a truth that has really become a source of worry for many".

He added that the world's biggest crude oil exporter should implement "swift measures" to diversify its economy.

Prince Alwaleed, owner of international investment firm Kingdom Holding, is unusually outspoken for a top Saudi businessman.

But his warning reflects growing concern in private among many Saudis about the long-term impact of shale technology.

It is allowing the US and Canada to tap unconventional oil deposits which they could not reach just a few years ago.

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Small towns, like Carroll County in Ohio, have been boosted by fracking Chancellor George Osborne has also announced support for fracking in Britain and in offshore waters, to ease a reliance on foreign oil and gas.

Some analysts think this may push demand for Saudi oil, as well as global oil prices, down sharply over the next decade.

Over the past couple of years the Saudi government has taken some initial steps to develop the economy beyond oil.

It has sought to liberalise the aviation sector and provided finance to small, entrepreneurial firms in the services and technology sectors.

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Cuadrilla has been exploring for gas in Britain, despite public protestsMr Naimi said publicly in May that he was not concerned about rising US shale oil supplies.

Prince Alwaleed told Mr Naimi in his open letter, which was dated May 13 this year, that he disagreed with him.

The prince said: "Our country is facing a threat with the continuation of its near-complete reliance on oil, especially as 92% of the budget for this year depends on oil.

"It is necessary to diversify sources of revenue, establish a clear vision for that and start implementing it immediately."

The prince said Saudi Arabia should move ahead with plans for nuclear and solar energy production to cut local consumption of oil.

The shale oil threat means Saudi Arabia will not be able to raise its production capacity to 15 million barrels of oil per day (mbpd), Prince Alwaleed argued.

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George Osborne reveals tax breaks to spur fracking investmentCurrent capacity is about 12.5mbpd; a few years ago the country planned to increase capacity to 15mbpd, but then put the plan on hold after the global financial crisis.

While most Saudi officials have in public insisted they are not worried by the shale threat, Opec has recognised that it needs to address the issue.

In a report earlier this month, Opec forecast demand for its oil in 2014 would average 29.61mbpd, down 250,000bpd from 2013. It cited rising non-Opec supply, especially from the US.

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Riyadh has announced a metro system to ease car usage:: The fracking warning comes as Saudi Arabia announced three foreign consortiums - led by US, Spanish and Italian firms - have won a $22.5bn contract to build Riyadh's 110-mile, six-line metro train network.

http://news.sky.com/story/1121610/sa...eat-to-kingdom

This is what will kill the Pregressive agenda... JMO
Fracking Helps Make U.S. World’s Top Petroleum Producer

U.S. has led world in petroleum production for last six months


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Natural gas well in West Virginia / AP

BY: Lachlan Markay
August 1, 2013 11:00 am

The United States was the world’s top petroleum producer in April, according to recently released federal data, marking six straight months of dominance in the market that experts attribute to the ongoing shale oil boom.

Those experts say that the data point to a new era of energy abundance, undercutting long-held theories that oil shortages would force the United States to seek other means of energy production.

According to data released this week by the Energy Information Administration (EIA), the U.S. produced 12.09 million barrels per day (mbpd) of petroleum in April. That outpaced Saudi Arabia, which produced 11.2 mbpd that month.
It marked the sixth straight month for the U.S. as the world’s leading petroleum producer. The trend began in November of last year.

Mark Perry, an economics and finance professor at the University of Michigan-Flint, noted that EIA data showed that the United States in April produced more petroleum than all countries in Europe, Central America, and South America combined.

“This is more evidence that America’s shale energy revolution is taking us from ‘resource scarcity’ to a new era of ‘resource abundance,’” Perry wrote on the American Enterprise Institute website, where he is a scholar.

“This energy bonanza in the U.S. … would have been largely unthinkable even five years ago,” Perry explained. “But then thanks to revolutionary drilling techniques developed by America’s ‘petropreneurs’ like George P. Mitchell, we’ve unlocked vast oceans of shale oil and gas across the U.S.”

Mitchell, who died of natural causes at age 94 last week, pioneered the revolutionary oil and gas extraction technique known as hydraulic fracturing, which experts credit with unlocking massive reserves of oil and gas deposits in shale formations around the country.

Despite the economic benefits brought on by the technology, environmentalists have vociferously opposed hydraulic fracturing, also known as “fracking.” Many have relied on factual misstatements or outright falsehoods to support their case against the practice.

“Opponents of hydraulic fracturing are never forced to answer a simple question: Why do they oppose a process that’s decreasing our reliance on foreign sources of energy?” said Steve Everley, a spokesman for the Independent Petroleum Association of America.

The facts highlighted by the most recent EIA data, Everley said, “unquestionably [represent] a positive development for the United States, and it’s in addition to the millions of jobs and cleaner air we’re all currently enjoying as a result of technologies like hydraulic fracturing.”

OPEC member nations, including Saudi Arabia, have raised concerns about the consequences of American oil dominance that has resulted from the country’s greater use of hydraulic fracturing.

Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal recently warned that the abundance of shale oil and gas in the United States threatens the Saudi economy, which relies in large measure on its large oil reserves.

Beyond overtaking Saudi Arabia, Everley noted, the shale oil boom appears to have rendered moot concerns about depleting reserves of oil. “North American shale has put the final, merciful nail in the coffin for peak oil theory,” Everley said.

http://freebeacon.com/fracking-helps...leum-producer/