The Word Is Out - But Is It Surplus Or Correction or Peak Oil

The Alberta Department of Energy was so proud of the presentation I produced for them, they handed a copy to Vice President Cheney. It was no surprise to him to hear Canadians boast about the over 177 billions of barrels in reserve sitting in the sand in Northern Alberta.

Of course, every other Dick, Tom and Harry was joining the “me too” line-up to get anyone’s attention in Washington. As Middle East oil-producers murmur about wanting to reduce oil exports to the US, anyone with a line on oil (hoping it might turn into a pipeline) is drooling in the lobbies of American Government.

BUT --- take a drive down the highway between Edmonton and Calgary, the two big cities in Alberta, and you’ll see an even more interesting line-up of oil rigs and the stacks of pipe sitting inactive in the yards. While Canadians do the lobby thing south the border, various players in the oil industry around the world are doing whatever they can to sell the pipes, rigs, trailers, vehicles and every configuration of pumps and transformers imaginable. Just check the auction lists at Kruse Global.

Clarence Shields and Rob Reeves, two Canadian entrepreneurs in the Leduc-Nisku area of Alberta, Canada, decided to call Kruse Energy Auctions of Oklahoma City, the leading auction company in the world, which has conducted over 90% of the energy auctions over the past 25 years. Within weeks, a relationship was born under the banner of Kruse Global Energy Auction. It wasn’t long before they held their first auction in 2007. Companies from all over the continent, along with buyers and sellers from around the world, came calling --- by land, by web, by cel phone --- to the tune of millions of dollars.

Kruse Energy was delighted with the results, so much so that they scheduled another auction in May of 2008. Already the sound of liquidation begins to shake the website at KruseGlobal.com. They come from the Middle East, Russia, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil and Texas, where they’re trying sell off oil production companies worth as little as 10 million dollars.

Last year, hundreds came to feast in the understated ballroom of the Nisku Inn in Nisku, Alberta, Canada. There was no buffet; just a few beverages in a Rubbermaid container next to a few cheese and fruit plates, next to a list of millions of dollars worth of inactive equipment collecting dust.