Hi, How many of you are aware of the new "oil boom" in North Dakota? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Dakota_oil_boom Much of that oil is still in shale (shale oil) and you know what that means? We're close to peak oil. When they start digging for shale, that means we're not far from sliding down on Hubbert's curve... the easy to get cheap good quality oil isn't enough and isn't easily accessible... ...this is the phase when they start digging for the "remaining oil", especially going after the domestic oil they knew about, but left untouched for strategic reasons and, this is when they go after the harder-to-exploit oil resources, like the shale oil in North Dakota! Oil is getting scarce and they dig more, harder and it's more expensive. Problems are getting very serious. I see the petrodollars more threatened by oil depletion. They'd better link the dollar to something else, if they want to save it. Also: usually - in terms of price - gold goes up when oil goes up. I see more bullish forces for gold.
There is also a question of technology. In the recent past it just wasn't worth the effort to extract oil from shale, regardless of cost. The oil sands in Canada are believed to hold as much or more oil than Saudi Arabia. Oil will be around for a lot longer than the alarmists want us to think. However whenever this comes up on SS there is a vigorous debate.
