Peak Oil News

U.S. Energy Department study concludes crude production will peak, requiring other energy forms Last September, a Chronicle editorial warned that global oil production would peak in this decade or the next, and then inexorably decline. Given that likelihood, the United States would have to embark on a crash program to develop alternative energy sources or endure crippling increases in the price of energy. Last week, a study performed for the U.S. Department of Energy concurred with the editorial's conclusions. » Source: chron.com The study, led by Robert Hirsch, warned that the world should be spending $1 trillion per year developing alternative energy sources — including tar sands, oil shale and gas liquefaction — to avoid having its economy crippled by oil shortages and the resulting chaos. The study recommends a 20-year lead time, so it might already be too late to prevent a crunch. The report said the timing was uncertain. Hirsch ...

Crude oil makes Kjell Aleklett think about wild strawberries. Aleklett, a Swedish professor of physics, sees inescapable similarities between the steady depletion of the world's most coveted energy source and the foraging habits of berry afficionados. "In Sweden we have strawberry fields where you can go out and pick for yourself. If you go out there in the morning there is a possibility that you can pick a big volume of strawberries. But the first picker picks the big ones. The last one is left with the small ones. It's very much the same thing when it comes to the production of gas and oil. » Source: The Vancouver Sun "The goodies, the big ones, have been picked. It's true all over the world. Now we have to stick to the small ones. That means it's harder to fill the ...

As a petroleum industry analyst who gave up material security for a career as an activist against petroleum industry expansion, I've developed a unique understanding of the global peak in oil extraction. Questioning society's energy needs has always been my tendency. But I gained further understanding of our culture by giving up affluence and many conveniences. This was an attempt to get closer to nature and live by my wits with the support of activists and my growing community of friends far and wide. » Source: Gristmill In 2004 I hit the road (the rails, usually) to spread the word about the plastic plague, petrocollapse, and the positive future that culture change will present. It was fitting that the nonprofit organization I founded in 1988, Fossil Fuels Policy Action, eventually ...

An engrossing, encompassing and interesting debate is raging and the entire energy fraternity is passionately involved. Proponents and the opponents of the peak oil theory are out in open — putting across their diametrically opposite arguments, in a charged atmosphere. Leading from the front, Saudi Aramco Chief Executive Abdallah S. Jum'ah is now forcefully arguing that at the current consumption levels, the world has enough oil to last — for at least 140 more years. Admitting though in a very conspicuous manner that crude remains a finite source, and none can indeed debate it, he emphasized the world has tapped only a considerably small portion, than previously thought, of this precious natural resource. » Source: MENAFM.com And when Jum'ah says something he speaks with a sense of authority and responsibility. After all he is the caretaker of the world's largest crude reserve. Speaking before a galaxy of industry experts in Vienna, ...

I wanted to be a geologist once — even claimed it as my major at the University of Georgia. Then they made me take calculus. I decided on a degree in English not too long thereafter, thinking I’d read books about oil and rocks instead. Research for last week’s column on the oil discovery in the Gulf intrigued me, as did the responses I received. Like addicts worrying about where our next fix will come from, we all seem to have an opinion on the future of oil. Back in the 1950s geologist Marion King Hubbert posited that crude oil was a finite resource and went on to illustrate when the U.S. and world would reach a peak in production by using a bell curve. The curve rises from left to right, as new oil is discovered and infrastructure is put in place to extract it. The curve goes back down ...

Global economic growth is at risk of peaking because of high oil prices and rising protectionist sentiment, warned Rodrigo de Rato, the International Monetary Fund’s managing director, on Tuesday. “The global growth cycle may be close to its peak,” Mr de Rato said in his opening statement at the joint IMF and World Bank plenary session in Singapore. “The best hope for continued high growth lies in further increases to international trade. If this does not happen, the outlook is less encouraging.” » Source: Financial Times Mr de Rato also warned of a continued risk that current account imbalances will unwind in a disorderly way. “There is a growing risk that protectionist sentiment will overwhelm good sense. If it does, all of the other risks loom larger.” The IMF chief urged developed and emerging countries to renew their commitment to multilateralism and resume the ...

In assessing future demand for transport, the Department uses assumptions of future oil prices which are established, and periodically updated, by the DTI. In the 2003 Future of Aviation White Paper, the Department's assumption was that aviation fuel prices would remain at $25 dollars per barrel in real terms (2000 prices) until 2030.[205] In the 2004 Future of Transport White Paper, the Department referred to the DTI's May 2004 projections of the price of crude oil standing at $23 a barrel (2003 prices) in 2010, and rising to almost $28 a barrel by 2020. » Source: UK House of Commons Since those White Papers were published, the price of oil has risen markedly; as of 11 July 2006 a barrel of brent crude stood at $74.16. In our first session, Transport 2000 discussed their concerns about the ...

In May 2006 I wrote, "I know about the "Peak Oil" theory that says we either have or are about to reach the point of diminishing returns regarding the world's oil supply, but these recent discoveries suggest there is still plenty of oil to be found." In that commentary I documented nearly a dozen new fields of oil and natural gas discovered since 1995. So I wasn't surprised when, on September 5, Chevron Corporation announced it had discovered new, huge reserves of oil some five miles below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico. The initial estimates were that these reserves "could boost U.S. oil reserves by 50 percent." Good news for Americans and good news as well for other oil companies such as BP, Anadarko Petroleum, and Exxon Mobil that have their own projects in progress. Indeed, two days later, Exxon Mobil announced that its Sakhalin-1 project offshore Russia had begun ...

The Bush administration said a Sept. 27 sale of oil drilling leases in Alaska should go forward and rejected a court's objections that environmental effects have not been properly addressed. The U.S. Interior Department said in a court filing yesterday that the impact of expanded drilling on air, water, wetlands and wildlife had been properly considered in the plan to expand drilling in the National Petroleum Reserve. Earlier this month, U.S. District Judge James Singleton in Anchorage ruled that an environmental impact statement prepared by the agency failed "to adequately address the cumulative effects" of drilling. » Source: Bloomberg.com "Depending on the resource or activity, the cumulative impacts throughout the entire North Slope are discussed," the Interior Department said in the filing. The agency "conducted the required 'hard look' at those impacts given the limited nature of information ...

In its need for more fuel to supply an expanding economy, China is pursuing a dynamic "holistic" approach to energy partnerships in Africa that has surprised many Western competitors, says South African Warrick Davies-Webb. Davies-Webb, political analyst at Executive Research Associates, a risk-management consulting firm headquartered in Pretoria, South Africa, spoke at a September 13 briefing sponsored by the African Center for Strategic Studies (ACSS), a U.S. government agency located at Fort McNair near downtown Washington. Established in 1999, ACSS sponsors seminars and training sessions for African midlevel military officers and defense officials. It recently opened an office in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to oversee programs on the continent aimed at increasing the professional skill of African militaries while building closer ties with U.S. counterparts in the defense community. » Source: US INFO With oil, gas and coal use far ...