ASPO 5. Richard Heinberg on the Oil Depletion Protocol

Richard spoke on the morning of the first day and gave a clear and passionate overview of the Oil Depletion Protocol. Here is an overview of what he said.

Without an Oil Depletion Protocol (ODP), what will happen? Extreme price volatility will make planning and investment difficult. There will be conflict over the remaining reserves which will hinder their development and make planning and investment difficult. Conflict over remaining reserves will hinder their development and divert resources from the required energy transition. Also, efforts to produce at maximum rates will damage reservoirs.

We need a cooperative agreement to gradually reduce oil consumption, to discourage competition, stabilise prices, protect the resource base and this agreement should be pegged to some kind of objective datum. The ODP began in 2002 when it was proposed by Colin Campbell, and was known initially as the Uppsala Protocol and then the Rimini Protocol, it was taken up and is now being driven forward, both by the forthcoming book of the same name and also by the Post Carbon Institute.

Energy Bulletin