Worldwide Peak Oil May Already Be Here – Now What?

Houston recently hosted the 2007 US.-World oil Conference of the Association for the Study of Peak Oil & Gas – USA (ASPO) at the Hilton Americas hotel. The event included four days of presentations and field trips by several hundred participants. Yet, despite the compelling significance of this issue – that the world’s supply of petroleum is due to “peak” at some point during this decade, at which point total world production will officially be declining toward depletion – there was amazingly little press coverage or US. public interest. ASPO boasts more than 20 chapters in the world, many of which are in Europe. Most members are retired and active professionals of the oil industry and academia. They are united in their efforts to educate the public and governments about the urgent need to begin steps to alleviate a massive potential crisis that is already apparent in the rapid price increases for crude oil and natural gas, two leading indicators measuring our advanced industrial economy.

We have had plenty of warnings about the consequences of an early peak in global oil production, but no one in Washington is listening. A premature topping plateau in global oil production would wipe out most, if not all, economic and policy plans on offer by politicians and “think tanks” in our nation’s capital. Such plans assume continued growth in supplies of generally affordable oil, but a surprised world could instead soon be facing rapidly dwindling supplies of increasingly unaffordable oil.


The U.S. is the world’s largest consumer of oil (25% of total world consumption) and could also find its sources of petroleum imports drying up. In the face of supply shortages, it is likely that the oil-exporting countries would begin to restrict the volumes previously available for export, to ensure that their own economies and people will be spared immediate shortages. Shrinking exports will adversely impact the global economy. The aftermath of peak oil will have major ripple effects for everyone on the planet, and these will only grow in intensity.

Red Orbit