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Rhinocrisy

22 November, 2005

Will Kuwait bite the dust?

Just as we all get used to the idea that Saudi Arabia might not have as much oil as promised, Kuwait announces it's cutting back its oil production because of water intrusion into the reservoirs. And look forward to revelations on Iraq in the next month or two.

Updated midnight 23 November: The Bloomberg story is here. The basic gist of its implications on peak oil are well spelled out at The Booman Tribune, The Oil Drum, and elsewhere.

In comments, Saheli asked if I was sure this was from water. I passed the question along to Greg Croft, who wrote:
Yes, the problems are due to water incursion. The water cut information is a state secret (!) in Kuwait, so it isn't good to quote Kuwait Oil Company workers. The Burgan Field has a strong natural water drive in all of the four main sands. The production rates of all the fields in that geologic group are limited by water incursion, but I also have some specific information on Burgan.
I haven't got a second source or anything, but I tend to believe people who have done geology in the region. He concluded, "This one will decline like a North Sea field - watch."

Comments

"no, you're right, it wasn't really about oil. blood is being spilt to protect our ability to play labor markets against each other in the world's longest continuous session of bargain hunting. oil's just what we put in the motor so we leave it audibly running outside the negotiations, as a threat." 

Posted by chromo


To save someone else the trouble of looking: Bloomberg article  on the announcement of Burgan oil field peaking; it's not clear to me if that's the same thing as this water intrusion problem, but so far goolenews doesn't bring me anything on [kuwait "water intrusion"] and neither does Yahoo. 

Posted by Saheli


The source was a conversation with an oil industry geologist, Greg Croft, who helps oilfield managers deal with problems like water intrusion. Jeez, Saheli, you and your fetish for source attribution. Someone might think you were a journalist or something. 

Posted by hedgehog


Whatever, Mr.Roots-and-Nuts. If you're going to be such an enabler, you can't complain about my citation fetish.  

Posted by Saheli


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