The decline of oil

The Western world can no longer take for granted the abundant supply of affordable energy that has sustained its economy.

If the soaring crude price has shown anything, it is that a paradigm shift is under way in the global oil industry: the Western world can no longer take for granted the abundant supply of affordable energy that has sustained its economy and living standards in the past.

So much is obvious from the dramatic run-up in prices that has shaken markets and energy consumers to their cores. Yet reasons for such rapidly shifting perceptions about the state of world energy supplies are far from evident, even to oil industry insiders.


In Empires of Oil, Duncan Clarke, the veteran global energy consultant, seeks to provide a coherent model for understanding the multiple forces that are shaping and changing the world of oil exploration and production