Friday, February 23, 2007

9 cents a liter

That's how much gas costs in Iran. Other oil-based energy is just as cheap. Iranians are now wealthy enough to afford the energy-using trappings of the West - cars, appliances, etc. Cheap energy and rising incomes have led to a situation where Iran, which supplies 5% of the world's oil, has to import oil to meet the demand.

At the same time production is declining. In the 1970s it was 6,000,000 barrels a day. In 2006 it was 2,290,000 barrels a day. And production does not show signs of increasing due to the sanctions, policies severely limiting deals with foreign companies which have the technology Iran needs, and the aging of many of the country's largest oil fields. Some feel that Iran will no longer be able to export oil in ten years or so.

It sure seems as though Iran does need nuclear energy.

1 comment:

Flimsy Sanity said...

The "right to guns" people think that we would be safer if everyone had a gun. I think Russia and the US should give every country in the world an atom bomb - force a stalemate. Really, how stable is a country like Pakistan and we helped them with a nuclear program?