Debate about peak oil is misleading

Flying across the Gwahar oil field in Saudi Arabia is a startling reminder of just how vast and impressive the oil industry is. Wells are dotted everywhere, huge pipes run across the desert and towers belch fire as the excess gas is flamed off. Gwahar is the largest oil field in the world and seen at sunset from above, it looks beautiful.

The enormity of an operation such as Gwahar can make us complacent about the scarcity of the world’s supplies of oil but, as we all know, this is a finite resource and it will not last for ever. Dubai is already moving to a non-oil economy and many other countries [the UK not least] will have to do the same in the coming years.

This has led to the concept of “peak oil”