Highly vulnerable to oil shortages

ONE of the world’s leading energy experts has warned that Australia will be one of the first countries hit hard by oil shortages as oil production peaks within the next three years.

Kjell Aleklett, a physicist from Uppsala University in Sweden, says Australia’s relatively underdeveloped public transport system leaves the country more vulnerable to a downturn in energy production.

“Australia is very sensitive to such developments,” Professor Aleklett told the Herald. “Much of your industry and transit is dependent on oil, and supplies will decline.”

Professor Aleklett addressed the NSW electric car task force and the Federal Government’s Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics yesterday. He had earlier warned a Senate committee that the International Energy Agency had wildly overestimated oil production, lulling nations such as Australia into a false sense of security.

Rather than oil production rising by 20 per cent to 101.5 million barrels a day in 2030, he says production is likely to fall 11 per cent, to just 76 million barrels a day.

Sydney Morning Herald