TITLE: OIL AND NATIONAL SECURITY – FAMILIAR BEDFELLOWS

ABSTRACT: 
From whale oil to Henry Ford and from coal to Stalingrad, Baghdad, and North Dakota’s Bakken, oil has played its part in changing the world in many, and some unpredictable, ways. OPEC has waxed and waned since its 1960 birth in Baghdad. Likewise, King Hubbert’s peak oil has both frightened and bemused western populations for over 60 years. Monotonic improvements in Upstream technology have been relentless, and coupled with their derivative economic impacts, continue to change the energy equation for almost every nation in sometimes surprising fashion. Each of these influences affect nations in different ways.  As each country goes about achieving their own specific national security goals, a discontinuous, and often contentious, mosaic of global energy and security state emerges that directly and continuously impacts how each nation prosecutes its future and, consequently, how we go about our lives.

BIO:
Dave earned his PhD in geology from Texas A&M University. He’s worked for Shell, CITGO, Conoco, and the Idaho National Laboratory in Upstream research and operations, and in infrastructure protection and terrorism risk analysis for the Department of Homeland Security. Dave spends most of his retirement time teaching adult education classes, fooling around in the kitchen, and visiting the grandkids