ENERGY: EXPERTS DEBATE ON WHEN OIL WILL RUN OUT

Rome, 17 July (AKI) – Scientists, geologists and energy experts who study the lifespan of oil and gas reserves are gathering in the Tuscan village of San Rossore for a two day conference dedicated to the vexed question of when the earth’s fossil fuel reserves will start running out and what the world will do as that happens. The Fifth International Conference of the Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas (ASPO-5) runs July 18-19 2006. ASPO is a mainly Europe-based association studying awareness of the impending peak of oil extraction and general resource depletion, the impact of depletion and the need for political action to reduce this.

The conference in the park of San Rossore, near Pisa, is organised by the Italian section of ASPO with the support of the University of Florence and of the Tuscan Regional Government. It will be followed on July 20-21 in the same location by the “San Rossore conference on Energy”, directly organized by the Tuscan Regional Government, which will deal mainly with renewable energy.

The peak extraction rate of non-renewable oil reserves occurs when roughly half of the recoverable oil in a reservoir has been extracted. This applies to individual oil wells, oil fields as well as to the world as a whole.

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