Gail Tverberg: Will 2011 be a rerun of 2008?

We all remember the oil price run-up (and run back down) of 2008. Now, with prices similar to where they were in the fall of 2007, the question quite naturally arises as to whether we are headed for another similar scenario. Of course, we know that the scenario cannot really be the same. World economies […]

Will shale gas turn out to be an energy sink?

IIf you externalize the costs of a business activity, it means other people pay the costs–environmental, social and otherwise–and you get the profits. It goes on all the time in extractive industries such as oil and natural gas and mining. And, it is also a natural strategy for manufacturers who dump their pollution into the […]

Controversial ‘Fracking’ and Clean Energy Future

The state of New York may well be the first to impose a limited ban on the controversial drilling method for natural gas called fracking. A moratorium bill has been sent to governor Pateron’s desk, and he has 10 days to decide its fate. So what’s all the hype about? Well, fracking has a lot […]

World Oil Production – Looking for Clues as to What may be Ahead

If we look at a graph of historical world oil production, we see a somewhat bumpy production pattern with two major price spikes (in 2009 $)–one peaking in 1981 and one peaking in 2008. Figure 1. World oil (crude and condensate) average daily production and refiners average acquisition cost in 2009 $, both based on […]

Does Peak Oil Even Matter?

It is easy to become befuddled by the current discourse on peak oil. Peak oil is defined generally as the point at which the flow rate of oil to society has reached a maximum. But this simple definition has issues too, such as what should be considered “oil.” Take, for example, the following sentences from […]

OPEC Cheating Most Since 2004 as $100 Oil Heralds More Supply

OPEC is breaching its production limits the most in six years, signaling the world’s biggest suppliers are ready to pump more crude next year as oil rallies toward $100 a barrel. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries excluding Iraq pumped 26.78 million barrels a day this year, exceeding the quotas by an average of 1.934 […]

Stuart Staniford: Prospects for a New Peak in Crude & Condensate

I pointed out on Friday that there provisionally appeared to be a new peak in global liquid fuel production, at least based on reports from OPEC and the IEA, and subject to confirmation by the third agency (the EIA) and the inevitable revisions to the series. Predictably, this led to a chorus of comments that […]

OPEC ministers make no change in output

OPEC ministers decided Saturday to keep oil output at current levels, citing ample inventories amid persisting global economic uncertainty and a price of just under $90 a barrel. The 12-member cartel said after an unusually short meeting that it based its decision on projections showing demand for crude would grow more slowly in 2011 than […]

Days of Easy Oil Fade in Middle East

The days of easy oil for the Middle East are not yet over, but energy companies in the region have recently started testing newer, costlier techniques to enhance oil recovery, as fields show signs of aging. “Enhanced oil recovery in the Middle East should become a must because many fields are in their maturing phase […]

North America: The new energy kingdom

The American Petroleum Institute reports that the United States produced more crude oil in October than it has ever produced in a single month, “peak oil” or not. This reversal of trend helps explain why U.S. domestic production for the year will be 140,000 barrels a day higher than last year (which was 410,000 barrels […]

OPEC crude oil production drops 70,000 barrels per day

As WTI nears $90, and Brent’s already there, consumers did not need this: OPEC cut its output last month. According to the Platts’ survey, OPEC cut its output just as demand is showing significant signs of growth around the world, pumping out 29.1 million b/d in November, That’s down 70,000 b/d from a month earlier, […]

Peak Oil Warning

UK companies warn government against an impending oil supply crisis. A recent report from the Industry Taskforce on Peak Oil and Energy Security warns that supplies of cheap, easily accessible oil will start to diminish by 2013. The industry lobby group,

Peak Oil,Then Coal

When will production of oil and coal peak?  After the peak, production will decline because supplies are being depleted and no new sources are to be found.  Peak oil is the point in time when the maximum rate of global petroleum extraction is reached, after which the rate of production enters terminal decline.  Optimistic estimations […]

Is Shale Gas Too Good to Be True?

Yesterday I participated in a webinar examining the sustainability aspects of the shale gas revolution. The online audience asked good, probing questions, and if there was a theme to them, it seemed to be that somehow the sudden abundance of natural gas resulting from a novel combination of shale-exploitation technologies–as well as the technologies themselves–must […]

Peak Coal is Moving Closer Too

Those following the issue have known for years that peak oil was very close, but coal was always thought to be another issue entirely. Official estimates, made many years ago however, talked about 300 years’ worth of coal being left which to most of us is synonymous with “eons.” Neither we, nor our children, nor grandchildren, nor our great-grandchildren can expect to be around that long. […]

ExxonMobil optimistic about long-term US gas production

ExxonMobil Corp. believes unconventional sources of natural gas could represent 70% of US gas supplies by 2030, Steve Kirchhoff, ExxonMobil’s Americas vice-president for natural gas, told a recent Deloitte LLP oil and gas conference in Houston. Kirchhoff cited ExxonMobil’s energy outlook during a panel discussion entitled “Oil Sands, Shale, and Conventionals in a Changing Global […]

Some Updated Peak Oil Facts To Consider

As has been reported on a number of other Peak Oil-related websites, the International Energy Agency, in its World Energy Outlook 2010, has finally come around to admitting what many have been stating for some time: Peak Oil is no longer a challenge to be faced in the distant (or even not-so-distant) future. The IEA […]

Peak Coal Is The Next Energy Crisis You Need To Start Paying Attention To

While everyone knows about the threat of peak oil, peak coal is looming, but for somewhat different reasons. Peak coal would be the product of an adjustment in demand brought on by green energy programs worldwide, according to a presentation by Kjell Aleklett is the president of The Association for the Study of Peak Oil […]

Oil: Beyond the Barrel – And Over the Cliff

As the price of oil climbs through $85 a barrel, it reminds me of the explanations flying around a little over two years ago as oil went to this level for the first time. “It’s all the funds chasing the hot commodity – the only game in town” was the refrain. It’s all a bubble […]

Independence, risk, and energy: a view from Saudi Arabia

From Saudi Arabia, US bluster about energy independence must look delusional. Saudi Prince Turki Al Faisal Al Saud, a former ambassador to the US, didn’t express the kingdom’s view in those stark terms in a Nov. 11 lecture at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy in Houston. But he raised issues frequently overlooked in […]

Jeff Rubin: Even the International Energy Agency Forecasts Peak Oil

The optimism typically found in the International Energy Agency‘s annual World Energy Outlook report is strangely missing this year. Instead, the IEA is taking a far more sober perspective on the world’s oil-consuming future due to our ever-greater reliance on costly unconventional oil sources. Output from currently producing fields is projected to fall precipitously, looking […]

Heinberg : ‘Peak coal’ to see prices soar

This week, science journal Nature says the world is on the verge of exhausting its cheap coal supplies. With rising demand and dwindling supplies of high quality usable coal, prices could be much higher by the end of the decade. The finding could also have implications for the controversial technology, carbon capture and storage. Download […]

International Energy Agency Says ‘Peak Oil’ Began in 2006

The International Energy Agency has released its World Energy Outlook for 2010, forecasting for the first time that the global crude oil production peak that so many have long feared, has in fact already been reached-more than four years ago. International demand has since fallen slightly thanks to a recent global economic downturn, but once […]

EU energy chief: Worldwide oil availability has peaked

The availability of oil worldwide has already peaked, the European Union’s energy chief Guenther Oettinger said on Wednesday. “My fear is that the global consumption of oil is going to increase, but European oil consumption has already reached its peak. The amount of oil available globally, I think, has already peaked,” Oettinger told a news […]

China’s Coal Crisis

The idea of peak oil—the point at which global production reaches its maximum—has fixated the energy industry for years. Now, China is grappling with a new worry: peak coal. State-run media reported that Beijing is considering capping domestic coal output in the 2011-2015 period, partly because officials worry miners are running down reserves too quickly […]

Reading between the lines of the IEA report

One of the more interesting occasions each year is learning just how far the International Energy Agency has come in the last 12 months towards publicly admitting that days of boundless cheap oil are over, just how high global oil production will ever get, and when the inevitable decline in production will set in. The […]

Peak Oil Was Reached In 2008

Jim Puplava (FSN) interviews Collin Campbell who says peak oil was reached in 2008. If that’s true, then humanity now faces the long decline (what James Howard Kunstler calls “The Long Emergency”) down the backside of the Hubbert curve. Global economic contraction, civil unrest, famine, war, and a dramatic reduction in worldwide population are all […]

Saudi Arabia: Peak Oil Forecasts Are Ridiculous Because We’ll Keep Prices Cheap For A Very Long Time

Saudi Arabia’s Prince Turki Al Faisal Al Saud has thrown cold water on forecasts for an oil price superspike, speaking to energy industry peers at Rice University. His nation has the capacity to handle surging demand from both China and other rapidly developing nations: Hellenic Shipping News: While many energy analysts are predicting a sharp […]

Video: Peak Oil Canada

Jeff Rubin and Andrew Nikiforuk discuss the future of the Canadian oil economy. Recorded Apr 30, 2010

OPEC output takes a significant upward move

Platts’ monthly survey of OPEC production can be found here. With prices rising, new supply can’t be anything but welcome to consumers. But if the price rise is being driven solely by dollar economics, will it matter?

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