HARWEEL OIL FIELDS, Oman - More than any country along the Persian Gulf, Oman provides a preview of the future of oil.
A sultanate of fewer than 3 million citizens, Oman has staked much of its future on evolving production techniques known as enhanced oil recovery. Geologists and engineers in the oil fields are employing many technologies also developing elsewhere in the Middle East, North America, and China.
Most of the techniques involve pumping some agent - steam and other gases, or chemicals including polymers and detergents - into a reservoir to encourage oil to flow.
For Oman, the plunge into enhanced oil recovery is a necessity. The world's other oil producers, even Saudi Arabia, will one day follow. With oil prices wedged above $100 a barrel this year, investors worldwide are sinking billions of dollars into enhanced oil recovery.
"The world has to," said Matt Simmons, an energy investment banker and a leading proponent of the argument that oil will run out sooner rather than later, in a telephone interview from the United States. "Because it's the last game going."
I thought we were going renewable because of the global fart mist thing?
By most accounts, Oman's sultan, Qaboos bin Said, had used much of the wealth of Oman's glory days of oil wisely. He created generous public services and a modern, if pervasive, government - police here routinely stop and issue fines to motorists on the road if their cars need washing, and inspectors scour Muscat for any building not painted the mandated white, cream or other light color. Qaboos's father, Said Bin Taimour, provided fewer than 10 miles of paved road for all of Oman. He allowed Christian missionaries to run the nation's sole hospital.
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