Oil Majors: Losing Control, Decreasing Output

In today's NYT, a worrisome indicator: output by the largest western oil co's had decline 5 straight quarters, due to what some executives are calling "geopolitical peak oil". Companies like ExxonMobil have the technology and financial resources to extract lots more oil, but the increasing nationalization of the world's most promising fields is keeping the real experts on the sidelines. And it looks like this is the way it's going to be going forward. More reason DOD needs to burn the midnight oil (whale oil?) to find alternative means to power and transport its vehicles.