Arthur Berman “Oil: It was the best of fuels, it was the worst of fuels”
Episode 03
January 12, 2022
(Conversation Recorded on December 29, 2021.)
On this episode we meet with petroleum geologist and expert in U.S. shale, Arthur Berman.
In the discussion, Berman explains oil from the ground-up. What is oil? How is oil formed? How did we become dependent on fossil fuels? How much human labor is equal to the amount of energy in one barrel of oil? Where do the majority of carbon emissions come from, and what role can we humans play in helping us reduce emissions? How much oil is left and what are future prospects for oil production and the economy?
Further, Berman looks at the human desire to continue to grow and how it contributes to our collective energy blind spots. If oil is the economy, and oil is depleting, Berman explains why human cultures will one day soon need to learn to be satisfied with enough, rather than more.
About Arthur Berman
Arthur E. Berman is a petroleum geologist with 36 years of oil and gas industry experience. He is an expert on U.S. shale plays and is currently consulting for several E&P companies and capital groups in the energy sector.
Video
Show Notes & Links to Learn More
Click here to view Arthur Berman’s slideshow
00:50 - Art Berman website + oil drum
02:23 - What is oil? - Slides #4-10
03:14 - Where is oil found? - Slide #11
04:07 - Oil is correlated with oceans, not dinosaurs - Slide #4
05:12 - Largest oil producers - Slide #3
05:45 - Largest oil consumers
06:15 - Economy is made by work/energy - Slide #22
06:35 - Largest source of energy is oil - Slide #23
06:58 - Countries with the largest oil consumption have the largest economies - Slide #26-27
07:16 - Why is oil so special? High energy density and transportable - Slide #25
08:52 - What do we use oil for besides gasoline, what products? - Slide #12
10:50 - What is oil depletion? - Slides #13-21
12:59 - Conventional vs unconventional oil - Slide #2
14:18 - Tight/shale oil
15:36 - Oil shale
16:17 - Peak oil - Slide #40-45
18:13 - Downslope for many (most) countries
19:04 - M.K. Hubbert Peak oil prediction
19:57 - US chart oil production cumulative vs separated out types - Slides #15-16
21:38 - Energy Information Agency Main objective being projection and numbers, not prediction
24:15 - Running out of enough oil to grow and maintain financial system - Slide #31
24:18 - A barrel of oil does 4.5 years of one person’s work; the world uses 35 billion barrels of oil per year, 100 billion in aggregate with coal and natural gas - Slides #28-29
25:15 - Oil production grew 6% per year from 1930s to 1970s, and 1% per year since 1970s
25:32 - Debt goes to shale companies - Slides #48-50
26:07 - Decline rate chart; Approximately 80% of us oil comes from 5 regions, with early decline rate 40% in the already drilled wells - Slide #17
27:49 - Technology is a straw that allows us to extract and use oil and gas faster - Slide #46
28:32 - It takes millions of years to regenerate oil
28:48 - Carbon pulse in Nate’s materials
29:42 - Peak demand - Slide #43
30:40 - We need oil to extract other resources, transport materials to manufacture, and transport to markets - Slide #23
31:20 - Turbines are made of plastic
33:00 - For every process we use fossil energy for we use 1000-5000x more than when humans used to do it
35:55 - Gasoline is only 40% of the barrel of oil - Slide #39
37:45 - Internal combustion vehicle only responsible for 10–20% of global emissions - Slide #36
38:35 - Art Berman Twitter
40:35 - Energy is treated the same as any resource in economics, but shouldn’t be - Slide #31
41:47 - US won WWII and everyone else was in collapse
42:11 - US first developed economy to switch to petroleum
43:03 - US land geological history
