Here's an interesting perspective on OPEC and Peak Oil:

        Peak Oil, the concept of world wide oil production
increasing, peaking, and then declining, is based upon the 1956 work
of American geophysicist Marion King Hubbert. Globally, Peak Oil is
expected to occur for both petroleum and natural gas by the year 2025
with worldwide supplies steadily declining thereafter. As the volume
of oil reserves continue to fall, the demand for oil will continue to
rise, further enhancing its economical, political, and strategical
value. Our planet's population is like an overinflated balloon, one
made entirely from petrochemical plastics, and as the petrochemicals
disappear, so too will the foundation upon which our lives are built
and sustained. When the black gold begins to run out and there is not
enough to go around, supplies of black blood will begin to run dry. Of
the roughly five billion population increase since Spindletop, many if
not most will have to go.

        When the United States invaded Iraq in 2003, it did so for
good reasons. In terms of national output, the U.S. had already passed
its own Peak Oil production point in 1971 and its peak natural gas
production in 1974. In addition, in 2003 the U.S. reached the half way
point toward complete depletion of its known oil reserves. Venezuela,
one of the United States' chief sources of petroleum, is in a similar
situation with its Peak Oil having occurred in 1970 while its halfway
point to depletion was also reached in 2003. Saudi Arabia, the nation
most commonly quoted as being the number one producer of petroleum in
the world, is expected to reach its Peak Oil in 2006 with a rapid
decline to mid-depletion by 2010. By invading Iraq for the second
time, the United States managed to take complete control of the Iraqi
reserves, and by 2005 the combined outputs from America's national and
occupational oil wells outpaced that of Saudi Arabia. This officially
made the U.S. the number one producer of oil in the world and
effectively castrated OPEC from ever imposing another oil crisis upon
the United States. While this may simply be a matter of moving to
higher levels on a sinking ship, the rest of the world is undeniably
feeling the pressure of being constrained below decks. As the United
States postures under the banners of democracy and world
globalization, it is, in effect, positioning itself for a not too
distant survival of the fittest. In this struggle, the main challenger
comes not from the Arab nations, but from the Far East.

        China, America's number one competitor for world oil
supplies, is growing at an astounding rate. Meanwhile, roughly three
quarters of the world's known oil reserves are in the Middle East. Of
that, one third is located in Saudi Arabia with Iran having around
half that much and Iraq having slightly less than half. Between them,
these three countries represent about fifty percent of the oil on this
planet. Given its close ties to the Saudi's and its complete ownership
of Iraq, the United States has governing access to almost forty
percent of global petroleum supplies (not including Iran). Adding
Canadian, Venezuelan, and America's own reserves to the list means
that roughly five percent of the world's population is in control of
sixty percent of the planet's petroleum. China, on the other hand,
with approximately twenty percent of the planet's inhabitants,
possesses less than two percent of the world's oil within its borders.
So, at the same time that it is being superficially Walmartized into
an oriental version of the world's leading superpower, Beijing
continues to underwrite the American national debt in the hope that it
will be granted sufficient access to the black blood it needs to
satisfy its own petroleum addiction. The paying of tribute in precious
gems, livestock, and grains, once the basis of the Goryeo-Khitan War
in 1018, has now been transformed into the art of underwriting a
faltering empire's economy through inexpensive merchandise and secured
notes. Yet, when Peak Oil arrives globally and push comes to shove in
2025, who will be left standing?

Quoted from:

www.TheDragonOption.com

For more about Peak Oil, see topic:

www.TheDragonOption.com/chapter4.html#topic12

I know I didn't have a decent paying job all the Carter years.  It was
Reagan's first year in office before I got a shot at a decent job.  I
couldn't BUY a decent job in the Carter years.

Charles of Schaumburg