by shortonsense » Sun 23 Aug 2009, 15:48:41
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Pops', 'S')orry, I put the link at the beginning of this thread instead of here
http://peakoil.com/post937931.html#p937931Now we're off to the races!!
So....how many peaks are possible in a given field/area/state/national/globe?
Mexico has gone through 3 separate peaks since the late-70's, Venezuela, the UK, FSU, they have each pumped out 2, the US is a minority example of a large and reasonable sized aggregate of fields which has really had one major one, with a few interruptions in decline on the way down, but certainly no sustained reversal to achieve another peak.
This reversal and repeak concept and counts mentioned above only apply to oil, the US has repeaked in natural gas production, some 35+ years after our first natural gas peak.
So one of the questions which seems relevant would be, how much does the economic component of development completely negate the geologic element, and in so doing, wipe out the ability to use past production as a predictive trend for future estimates of production, rather than a complete economic model which encompasses what has been admittedly a critical variable left out of just supply calculations, which is demand and the resultant price.
The operative example would be a person standing in 1983, having just watched world global oil production decline approx 10% from its 1980 peak, and using the past to predict the future production rate off the prior trend. That person, in 1983, could proclaim with as straight a face as any Doomer today, that peak had happened, the end is near, <fill in UberDoomer scenario> is about to happen, etc etc.
Those of us who were applying for mortgages in the 1980-1983 timeframe might have bought into such a scenario as easliy as someone today watching their home equity disappear. The fear of the times is a common thread in both these cases, as demonstrated by everything from Jimmy and his malaise speech to examples too numerous to list from this website, or others, or various books hawked to the public at large on the evils of fossil fuels.
And yet we all know what happened next. More oil. So much more oil that it required the SUV and millions of soccer moms to soak it up at bargain basement prices in useless transportation.
And here we are, at another peak, and another period of economic turmoil ( lacking really only the blame on big oil this time, which is another question ) saying the same things which were said during the 70-80's, and even earlier if we want to reference Harold Ickes.