by Tanada » Fri 22 Jul 2022, 17:53:16
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('AdamB', 'S')carcity of supply around the time of 2018 peak oil? Okay...lets approach it that way. Peak oil happened and for 2 years no one noticed. Then, one afternoon, a bunch of things happened, Covid, a near coup in the US, a demand side shock, followed by a supply chain cock-up, followed by closed refineries in the world's largest exporter of refined products, a major land war in Europe....and...? Current circumstances are caused by the peak oil 4 years ago? Really?
And when you say "supply", what do you mean? What you can see today? Or that which is available with investment? Hence things like resource cost curves. You do know what they are don't you? Any future modeling involving non-renewable energy resources would seem to require them, unless someone is some kind of hack who just makes things up in any one or all three of the science regimes needed to discuss this question in a holistic fashion.
IMO and yes this is just an opinion, if it turns out that 2018 was "The One" world peak I would classify the 2019-2021 period as a time of low demand due to Covid and other economic factors. It was only about a year ago in mid 2021 that demand recovered enough to start driving prices upward. It also looks like this time KSA decided that cashing in on high prices was more advantageous than the flood the market strategy they adopted in mid 2014 that led to the price bottoming out in January 2016. That low price period in turn caused a large curtailing of drilling in already leased tight oil areas of the USA which is why world peak shows up in 2018.
I know you don't appear to put much faith in economic factors, or so your last response directly to me seems to have said from my point of view. I however for whatever it is worth think based on my life experiences and following this general topic since 1982 thing economics are the driving factor in all peaks up to the final peak.
Let me give two examples.
1) Let us say Humans suddenly decide to go all electric on transportation and governments everywhere pass regulations and laws requiring that all private and commercial vehicle be plug in hybrid drive trains or pure battery electric vehicles. Over the following 15 years as ICE vehicles cease manufacturing and electric vehicles become standard crude oil demand declines steeply. Because it is a UN/government mandate it doesn't matter than crude is selling for $6.23/bbl at the end of the 15 years, the simple fact is demand no longer supports higher prices. This scenario causes 2018 to become the world peak oil because demand never rises above a low base level which is to a large extent consumed in manufacturing petrochemicals, plastics and asphalt paving with just a little going for transportation use.
2) Let us assume the world government discard the theory of Global Warming, Anthropocene Climate Change or whatever your preferred terminology is. In this scenario world governments fund a long list of government subsidized oil substitutes each based on a target price of $100/bbl adjusting for inflation as time passes. In this world places with abundant natural gas like North America and Iran build Gas To Liquids facilities to reformulate their excess methane production into synthetic gasoline, kerosene and diesel fuels all sold at the fixed government price of $100/bbl. Because the world economy has already adapted to function at this price point additional players enter the market offering synthetic fuels from Lignite to Liquid, Coal to Liquid, Biomass to liquid and even the navy Seawater+CO2 to liquid synthetic fuels. All of these endeavors are profitable at the $100/bbl price point the government has created. This also strongly encourages developments like the Utah oil sands that went bust when the oil price dropped in 2015-2020 below the level of their needed price point to earn a healthy profit. It also encourages a continuing expansion of the Athabasca bitumen sands and a revival of the Venezuelan extra heavy oil reservoirs as governments change over time. Because the price point is set by fiat their is an abundant supply of oil for all uses but as time goes on less and less of that oil is actually a liquid extracted from reservoirs for refining. Under this scenario it turns out that 2018 was actually "The One" world peak in terms of crude oil production, however the vast quantities of substitute synthetic fuels made from cheap abundant Natural Gas, Lignite and Coal for the most part means the crude peak is kind of unimportant other than as a foot note in petroleum geology lessons for students.
The economics driving each of the two scenarios were about as opposed as I could figure out how to make them. In scenario 1) crude oil demand becomes a few million barrels a day and the remaining reserves will last a very long time. In scenario 2) Government stabilization of the price of crude at a significant level supported synthetic fuel production that replaced oil demand faster than growth at that price point required resulting in ample fossil fuel supply with lower demand for crude oil at the same time.
Because we live in a democratic culture where voters demand the cheapest energy they can get most of the time neither is likely because each would require a consistent campaign of education or propaganda to convince the voters that path was the solution to their energy problems. Given the fecklessness of western politicians I find that a low probability even though I think under the mandates stated either scenario is a technical possibility even if they are not politically viable.
Point being in both scenarios economics were very important in setting how high the peak of world production reached even though there was still lots of crude oil left in the ground waiting to be exploited. In both scenarios given a long enough time projection into the future all that remaining crude being a finite resource would eventually be consumed, but because you have substitution via electricity in Scenario 1 and substitution with other abundant fossil fuels in scenario 2 the date when that oil is no longer worth extraction is pushed far into the future.
Over here in 2022 we are still playing at BAU and how long we sustain prices above $100/bbl remains an open question because of economic factors. A major recession would lower demand, a return to government policy supporting fracking would increase supply, the war could end today if Putin decided to just walk away (stranger things have happened historically) or some nutty dictator might drop a half dozen nukes on the major oil shipping terminals around the Middle East and shut down 30% of world supply overnight. It is the future and nobody knows with certainty what events will take place to drive the situation.
"You makes your choice and you takes your chances".