Huge Oil Find Called 'Death Knell for OPEC'
Newsmax

The discovery of massive oil deposits in Australia could shake up the world's energy industry and threaten OPEC's grip on oil markets.

Australia's Linc Energy has released reports, based on exploration near the remote town of Coober Pedy in South Australia, estimating the amount of oil in the untapped Arckaringa Basin could range to as high as 233 billion barrels.

That could turn Australia from an oil importer into a large-scale exporter.

Estimates of 233 billion barrels are just 30 billion fewer than the estimated reserves in Saudi Arabia, 263 billion barrels. They are more than in Venezuela (211 billion barrels), Canada (175 billion), Iran (137 billion), and Iraq (115 barrels), and could be worth more than $20 trillion.

The discovery isn't fresh news, however — reports about Coober Pedy's potential date back to January 2013. The news is that there hasn't been more news about the find, according to oil industry adviser Dr. Kent Moors, Ph.D., who thinks the discovery could be even larger than estimated.

"The find may land at 300 or 400 billion barrels, making it one of the greatest unconventional oil discoveries any of us will see in our lifetime," said Moors, a professor in the Graduate Center for Social and Public Policy at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh and founder and editor of the Oil & Energy Investor newsletter.

"It represents a bona-fide redrawing of the global energy map as we know it, and the mainstream media is completely ignoring it."

He calls the discovery "the death knell for OPEC" and a "death blow for Saudis," predicting that Australia could become "one of the world's biggest oil exporters."

Linc Energy managing director Peter Bond told Australia's Herald Sun that the company plans to drill up to six wells to confirm the estimates of shale oil deposits, adding that "it's one of the key prospective territories in the world at the moment."

Saudi Arabia and the rest of OPEC are already threatened by the shale oil boom in the United States, which has reduced America's dependence on foreign oil.

Back in July, Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal warned in a letter to Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi and others that "America and some Asian countries made big discoveries in shale gas extraction which will affect the oil industry around the world in general and Saudi Arabia in particular."