Middle East Power Shifts and The Oil Shortage

The worldwide media already draws attention to the possible problems in oil supply due to recent unrest in Middle East; however, it is a very short term view. There are nevertheless few experts who look at long term problems in this area and they are trying to sound the alarm about the coming oil shortage, but sadly enough decision makers do not listen to them at all.

In 2004 author C.J. Campbell published a book titled, “The Coming Oil Crisis,” in which he warned both experts and the general public that growing demand for oil and quickly depleting oil resources will cause a major shift of power in the world as well as bring a profound change to our way of life.

It seems that this crisis is already upon us. According to some of the latest Wikileaks cables, Saudi Arabia, which is the greatest oil producer nation in the world, overstated its oil production by as much as forty percent. This means that there is already much less oil to go around. In the light of that revelation it is quite possible that other oil exporters might be overstating their oil production as well.

This could explain why the oil prices are continually rising. The political turmoil that we see in Middle East right now just makes the situation more difficult. The possible rise of more radical governments there who have to appease more outspoken than before public, means that the politics of the oil exports could radically change as well.

They could decide to sell more oil to their allies and proverbially hang the West to dry or make it pay much more for the oil it buys. It would be the end of our oil dependant way of life and nothing short of another Great Depression as well as possible world war for domination of energy resources. The sharp rise in oil prices would cause the prices of virtually everything from gasoline, electricity, to food we put on our tables. That is if the western countries will continue to do nothing in order to get less dependent on oil.

It is no longer just about averting a possible environmental disaster. Using oil as a main energy resource is simply not sustainable. The rise of new and most likely not friendly to western interests regimes in major oil producing countries just drives it home much faster.