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

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.

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

In the mid-1980s, operating problems took [nuclear] plants off-line so often that, on an annual basis, they operated at only about 55 percent of their rated total generating capacity. Today, as a result of several decades of experience and an intense focus on performance ... nuclear plants in the United States operate at over 90 percent of capacity. That improvement in operating efficiently is so significant in its impact that it can almost be seen as a new source in electric power itself.

In a couple of years, the Chinese will be seen as regular participants in international industry. Their companies have to report to shareholders as well as to the Chinese authorities. They need to make money, they have to be efficient.

It's extraordinary how inventive one can be with ethanol right now.

The North Sea was supposed to run out in the 1980s. Then in the 1990s. And now production is still on-line.