Guest Post: Former Shell Oil Chief Predicts $5 Gas by 2012

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/guest-post-former-shell-oil-chief-predicts-5-gas-2012

I’m predicting a worse outcome over the next two years, which takes us to 2012 with higher gasoline prices, uncertainty as to the future of hydrocarbons, more regulation on the hydrocarbon industry based upon who the administration is today…
And what I fear the most is that by 2012 prices are so high that we have a backlash from the electorate and we go into reverse and we go back to a hydrocarbon only type of a future, maybe with some nuclear, instead of moving on in the 21st century.
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I’m predicting, based upon the moratorium in the Gulf of Mexico, up to a million barrels a day of US production gone because of the politics of freezing drilling in the Gulf.
The headline is the moratorium is lifted, the reality is you can’t get a permit… I’m expecting no new drilling for two more years at least.
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If we stay on our current course, within a decade, within ten years, we’re into energy shortages in this country big time. Black outs, brown outs, gas lines, rationing - that’s my projection based upon the current inability to  make decisions.
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When the American consumers are short, or when prices are so high - $5 a gallon for gasoline by 2012 - I believe that’s going to happen - that’s going to set a new tone, it’s going to be panic time on the part of the politicians, they’re going to suddenly get some kind of a sense we better do something.