Comment by alphydan | Hacker News Reader

Comment by alphydan | Hacker News Reader

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> straight-facedly suggest that oil is a curse, because of price volatility, rather than the blessing every other country considers it to be?

Easy. the price volatility is a red herring. The real curse is that the UK already rode the peak of production, but the average of all North Sea fields is now in terminal decline.

In particular, you will spend more and more money (currently about 8bn OPEX/yr and growing [0]) but only get a declining production: lately about -5% less oil/yr [1]). There are still many billions to be made, but it won't fuel _growth_ in Scotland. (the link you provided explains how the UK already took that opportunity)

[0] http://euanmearns.com/uk-north-sea-oil-production-decline/

[1] http://cdn.static-economist.com/sites/default/files/imagecac...

There are all sorts of reports, including the ones which point out that the oil and gas fields off the West coast of Scotland have remained unexplored because the British Ministry of Defense banned it because the nuclear submarines needed to get safely in and out of the Faslane naval base (Europe's biggest accumulation of nuclear weaponry, just 30 miles from Scotland's largest city).

My belief, based on the most recent independent reports, is that there is a great deal of oil and gas left ... but ... even if there was not a drop, it would still be better for the Scottish people to control their own destiny.

Note that I didn't mention anything about the independence. I'm pretty agnostic about it. Managing a resource is good, but one has to be realistic about the prospects. I think wind energy is an awesome resource for Scotland too, often overlooked.

I linked to data and analysis. Where are the sources for the conspiracy about the "unexplored banned resources"? (note that the exact same reservoir behaviour (steep production decline due to rapidly falling pressure) is happening in Denmark and Norway, where the British Ministry of Defence has no authority and there is no "Faslane" naval base).

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