Peak Oil News

Sweden is planning to be oil free by 2020, and a multi-party Senate Committee has cited it as a good example. Their report raises recommendations reducing greenhouse gas emissions and car use, and investing in public transport, gas and biofuels. But new figures show that Australians are relying on their cars more than ever. Annie Guest has this report. » Source: The World Today ANNIE GUEST: It's no secret Australians love their cars, but there's evidence that affection is stronger than ever. Maryann Wood from the Bureau of Statistics says we're clocking up record kilometres. MARYANN WOOD: In the year ending 31st of October 2005, the report actually shows that Australian vehicles travelled just over 206 billion kilometres. ANNIE GUEST: And where does that sit with previous statistics? MARYANN WOOD: This is actually a record figure. ANNIE GUEST: Whether 2006's higher petrol prices have pushed more Australians ...

In his 2006 State of the Union address, President George W. Bush declared that the U.S. is a nation “addicted to oil” and vowed to take steps to reduce Middle Eastern imports by 75 percent by 2025. After a summer of $3-plus gasoline, most of us would see this as a good idea. But it may be too late. According to a growing cadre of petroleum geologists, the days of cheap oil are over. At issue is a concept called Hubbert's Peak, named for former oil-company geologist M. King Hubbert. In 1956, Hubbert made a bold prediction. Oil production in the Lower 48 states, he said, would peak in the early 1970s and decline forever after. He proved, if anything, slightly too optimistic: the actual peak occurred in 1970. » Source: SignOnSanDiego.com More recently, Kenneth Deffeyes, a retired geophysics ...

Norway's oil output is peaking at around 3 million barrels per day and will stay at this level for the next four to five years before the country switches focus to natural gas production, a senior government official said today. "We are sort of on the peak of oil production (and) we will stay here for four or five years and then switch to gas," Reuters quoted Anders Bjarne Moe, director general of the Oil & Energy Ministry, as saying at an oil and offshore conference. The looming shift to more gas as recoverable oil supplies on the Norwegian continental shelf dwindle will curb the flow of cash into the country's oil fund, which manages assets worth nearly $250 billion or roughly Norway's annual gross domestic product. » Source: Upstreamonline Moe said Norway enjoyed the status of a safe energy supplier, noting the UK's strong ...

There has been a lot of talk recently about the "spike" in oil prices. Spike is, of course, a reassuring word: it implies there's a downward slope on the other side. Just the other day, editorial writers and business-page commentators were reassuring us that oil at $75 (about R540) a barrel was "unsustainable", and that prices would fall as supply and demand even out. But opinion is moving towards the Goldman Sachs 2005 forecast of a "super-spike", in which prices could go as high as $105 (R750). » Source: motoring.co.za At present, we are told, demand is increasing while supply is insufficient as a result of oil companies' under-investment during the 1990s, when oil prices were low. But now (says the business correspondent of The Guardian), "the majors are looking for - and finding - oil like never before". And ...