Peak oil hits new heights and the view is not pretty

The problem is simple, there is not enough to go around

China’s devastating earthquake gave the people of Sichuan an early taste of a world that is running out of fuel.

Thousands of families slept in their cars outside petrol stations because the province’s oil infrastructure had been disrupted and its remaining fuel supplies diverted to the rescue effort. Truck drivers loitered patiently for local officials to raise their diesel rations beyond a paltry 100 yuan ($14), while taxi drivers refused to take reporters from Mianyang city to the earthquake disaster zone because they could not get enough petrol for the ride.


Kevin Tu, an energy consultant in Canada, says the earthquake and Chinese Government efforts to build huge strategic reserves in time for the Olympic Games in August will have a “huge impact” on the international market.

And yet oil demand in China and other developing countries is growing so fast, and the international market is so stretched, that international oil prices smashed through to new records this week. Sydney petrol stations were charging as much as $1.60 a litre, but there may be much worse to come. Australian petrol refineries are yet to receive oil that was bought at the new record prices.

Sydney Morning Herald