It is pretty well known that many of the oil producing countries, especially in the Middle East, greatly exaggerate their oil reserves. This became a real problem when OPEC started keying the production their members were allowed to their stated reserves. The more reserves, the more production allowed.

The obvious result was that almost immediately stated reserves shot way up. None of these claimed reserves are verified.

Paris-based International Energy Agency (IEA), the energy watchdog of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, warned in its latest medium-term oil market report that a market crunch is looming over around 2012, but some OPEC producers are breaking even more negative news. After a short analysis hype in the beginning of 2006, analysts have been forgetting to cover OPEC countries currently battling reserve issues.

From the Motley Fool today:

These days, everyone's gaga over Dow 13,000 -- even me. Sure, it's just an arbitrary milestone -- but still, like observing your odometer as it rolls over to a fresh set of zeroes, it's fun to watch anyway. Plus, to the extent that the market's recent rise reflects investor optimism about corporate fundamentals and earnings -- as opposed to a top-down assessment of economic trends -- 13,000 is an arbitrary marker with investing substance behind it.

Call it the best of both worlds.

Alas, what goes up ...
... usually comes down. See February's nosedive for details. Or the one we lived through last summer. Or, for a more dramatic example, the meltdown that occurred in early 2000.

As you may painfully recall, the market tumbled hard then -- and for quite a long while as well. Indeed, between March of that year and the close of 2002, the S&P-tracking Vanguard 500 Index (FUND: VFINX) declined by 33%. Meanwhile, the Cubes ETF (QQQQ) -- which tracks the Nasdaq 100 and counts Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL), Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT), and eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY) among its top holdings -- shed some 77% of its value over the period

Scam #1
Watch out for e-mails that claim to be from the IRS. Some scammers are sending out e-mails to taxpayers claiming to be representatives of the IRS in order to get personal and financial information.

Some of these emails claim to be a NOTICE OF REFUND with official-looking government logos. However, the IRS never contacts taxpayers by email. The scam is to try and get personal information from you.

Scam #2
Nearly every taxpayer is entitled to a deduction this year of up to $60 for long-distance calls made since 2003.

In this particular scam, someone will claim you are entitled to thousands in refunds and will seek a fee from you to get the refund. This is a total scam and will leave you responsible for taking an unauthorized deduction on top of losing the fee.

In the IEO2006 reference case, world oil demand grows from 80 million barrels per day in 2003 to 98 million barrels per day in 2015 and 118 million barrels per day in 2030. Demand increases strongly despite world oil prices that are 35 percent higher in 2025 than in last year’s outlook. Much of the growth in oil consumption is projected for the nations of non-OECD Asia, where strong economic growth is expected. Non-OECD Asia (including China and India) accounts for 43 percent of the total increase in world oil use over the projection period.

To meet the projected increase in world oil demand in the IEO2006 reference case, total petroleum supply in 2030 will need to increase by 38 million barrels per day, to 118 million barrels per day, from the 2003 level of 80 million barrels per day. OPEC producers are expected to provide 14.6 million barrels per day of the increase. Higher oil prices cause a substantial increase in non-OPEC oil production—23.7 million barrels per day, which represents 62 percent of the increase in total world oil supplies over the projection period. The estimates of production increases are based on current proved reserves and a country-by-country assessment of ultimately recoverable petroleum.