Declining production

May 5, 2008
I reckon Thomas Wyman’s letter, “A disquieting look,” has factual merit, but let’s not take the wrong trail.

I reckon Thomas Wyman’s letter, “A disquieting look,” has factual merit, but let’s not take the wrong trail (OGJ, Apr. 14, 2008, p. 12). Oil production has always declined since Drake drilled the first well. What doesn’t get replaced by newly discovered, but surely more costly, reserves will be replaced by rerouting use.

Nuclear can displace a significant amount of oil and gas used for generating electricity. Coal is moving into the picture, too, but it needs the people’s help. Coal was made clean and safe 25 years ago.

The Oil & Gas Journal’s editorial, “Energy and the poor,” had it dead center (OGJ, Mar. 17, 2008, p. 23). “The tactics governments use to implement fuel preferences raise costs more generally than [costs of specific regulations] and often more insidiously”—not to mention the reserves they keep out of the pipeline. That keeps supplies short, and the prices rise.

Toby Elster
Consulting geologist
Wichita, Kan.