Tom Rogue

From Subprime to Meltdown: Is Peak Oil Responsible?

I acknowledge some disagree, however I don’t think this blog (peakoildebunked.blogsp...) offers a trustful and valuable counter-argumentation.

This is a well known report against Peak Oil, written by CERA: www.cera.com/aspx/cda/...

Here is a response from Chris Skrebowski (former long-term planner for BP, previous senior analyst for the Saudi Oil Ministry and Editor of the influential Petroleum Review) to the arguments CERA develops in the report:

globalpublicmedia.com/...

There was a debate about the danger of smoking (companies refuted this claim for many decades before conceding their mistake), there has been one on climate change since the 1970s, which is almost over (not surprisingly ExxonMobil who argues Peak Oil is not an issue, was an active voice against human climate change) and today there is one on Peak Oil (unfortunately it may have started too late). Instinctively I would rather trust independent geologists than corrupt and autocratic countries of the OPEC or a company like ExxonMobil.

In recent years “Peakists” have gained ground, in light with indisputable facts, namely the increase in oil prices (from 18dollars in 1998 to 147 in July 2008, around 800% while demand has kept rising-total inelastic commodity) and the stagnation of oil production. In fact if you check the numbers available on the webpage of the EIA, they even show a small decline in global oil production since 2005, 84.58 Million Barrels per Day (in 2006, 84.54 and 2007, 84.44; 2008 is not yet available obviously) a decline while oil prices were skyrocketing. And yes, Peak Oil may have already happened, but we’ll have to wait a few more years to be sure.

However, during my interview with Dr. Campbell, he added on this issue, “a debate rages as to the date and height of peak, which I think rather misses the point when what matters - and matters greatly - is the vision of the long decline that comes into sight on the other side of it”. I can only agree with him.

And to answer Michael Pinilla, you are right, Peak Oil is no longer a theory but a reality; I will correct it in the future.

Thanks for all your comments.