Day: January 7, 2007

Letter Re: Oilfield Production Decline Rates are Worse than Expected

Dear Jim and Family, I wish I could say Happy New Year, but i just learned some terrible news in the oil business. The big fields where most of the USA and world get their oil are declining at much faster rates than expected, and the companies are willing to admit to high numbers. In summary: Burgan field in Kuwait dropping at 11% per year. Ghawar field in Saudi Arabia (biggest in the world) dropping at 8%, which is 5.5% higher than expected. Cantarell field in Mexico (source of most US oil) is dropping at 14% rather than the 6% …


Letter Re: Night Sights for Pistols

Dear Jim: After doing some night shooting courses with no night sights on my long gun – ( bad idea 🙁 ) I found XS Sights for long gun tritium retrofits. Fortunately, I was also introduced to their pistol sights for faster day and night sight shooting – 24/7 Express Sights. You really need to see the photo to appreciate the design, but basically it make the rear notch a very shallow V with a tritium “I” bar in the low center. The front sight is tritium surrounded by a big white dot – so you get the tritium at …


Letter Re: Can I Burn Off Road Diesel Fuel in a Modern Diesel Engine?

Jim I have experience with both off and on road diesels mechanical and electronic control. Normally off road fuel is ok to run in all mechanically fuel injected engines from a performance standpoint. (But legality is another matter.) However, both Stanidyne and Delphi produce an electromechanical pump for some on road applications that use an electric eye to read timing. These types of fuel systems cannot be run on dyed fuel. I repeat cannot be run on off road fuel. Second and of primary importance is fuel quality all electronic fuel injection systems are very sensitive to fuel contamination and …


Jim’s Quote of the Day:

"There are three points of doctrine the belief of which forms the foundation of all morality. The first is the existence of God; the second is the immortality of the human soul; and the third is a future state of rewards and punishments. Suppose it possible for a man to disbelieve either of these three articles of faith and that man will have no conscience, he will have no other law than that of the tiger or the shark. The laws of man may bind him in chains or may put him to death, but they never can make him …