Here we go again: "I read it in the (New York Times, Newsweek, National Geographic, the National Enquirer, All of the Above); I saw it on TV; I heard (Colin Campbell, Mike Davis, Homer Simpson, All of the Above) say it. Ergo Mark Jones was right."
Amazing. In the very midst of the exposure of the natural gas "crisis" of the 2000, 2001 as market manipulations; in the very midst of the revelation that crude and refined petroleum stocks in the US and the advanced countries are at record levels, thus generating high spot prices, allowing companies to "book" inventory valuation based profits; despite the fact that natural gas prices soared as a response too price reductions after the bringing to market of new supplies; despite the fact that Shell's reserve reductions, like its reserve inflation, were accounting adjustments and accounting tricks; despite the fact that gasoline price increases have been shown to be the product of similar market manipulations, based in part of fixed asset reductions and production restrictions-- despite all that the sky is falling; chicken little is right; and so was Hobbes because the future is nasty brutish and short, so close out your positions and take the money and run. "Even though reserves have risen, output has fallen..." This should tell us something, as reserves have risen, and output has fallen as a result of the mega-mergers of the 90s which allowed the combined companies the "luxury" of booking combined reserves while struggling with the overweight combined fixed assets. You can look it up. Actually you can look it down, in the very same article in the NYT: "What we have now is meaningless data," Mr. Simmons said. Big oil companies once prided themselves on conservative reserve estimates. But today, to justify multibillion-dollar investments in politically or technologically risky fields, companies have become much more aggressive, he said. Mr. Simmons is making a social, economic analysis. Not a geological one. Call me old-fashioned, but.. I would think Marxists would want to look at rates of return, fixed asset levels rather than geology before making determinations as to the real reasons for changes in output.
