When global oil production peaks

WITH oil prices hitting all-time highs and war raging in Iraq, serious concerns about ‘peak oil’ slowly have appeared on the public radar screen. Simply put, peak oil refers to a key turning point when global oil production peaks and then begins to decline, signalling a future of dwindling supplies.

Analysts predict that the peak will occur between 2006 and 2011, that global oil reserves are far more limited than believed, partly because leading producers such as Saudi Arabia overestimate or obfuscate their oil reserves, and that we are headed for a massive energy crunch.