Even Silicon Valley investors have put well over a $1 billion in new energy technologies.

This has a lot to do with the unrest in Nigeria, but also with the production loss after the hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico, the decline in Iraq since the 2003 war, and the decline in Venezuelan output since 2002.

So the major obstacle to the development of new supplies is not geology but what happens above ground: international affairs, politics, investment and technology.

The starting point for energy security today as it has always been is diversification of supplies and sources.

A premium in the oil price of somewhere between 10 to 15 dollars a barrel reflects this heightened anxiety.

I think the producers, for the most part, don't want to see prices skyrocket because that will only create problems for them down the road and would also be a, you know, would be a very serious shock for a world economy that can't afford serious shocks right now.

The Russians are turning east to the Chinese - to the Europeans' surprise. It always seemed to me that the relationship between Russia and China would shift from being based in Marx and Lenin to being based in oil and gas.