BP: Changing perspectives on Peak Oil – Investment vs. Supply vs. Demand

Retrospectively, trying to understand Big Oil on the subject of peak oil is about as difficult as penetrating the comments of central bankers, sometimes called Fedspeak here in the U.S.

In 2004, the British Petroleum (BP) exploration consultant Francis Harper told London’s The Business newspaper that world oil supply would be peaking earlier than expected, and that “the world’s total original usable oil resources


When the world peaks isn’t the critical thing. What’s more salient is when non-Opec oil peaks, then you’ll have the control of marginal production passed back to a progressively smaller group of countries.”

He added that oil companies’ public positions on the issue masked debate within them. “There are people in BP who happen to be economists and so happen to think there’s no problem, and there are people in BP who are geologists who are saying it’s getting hard to find.”

Harper’s prediction is higher than the 2 trillion posited by doom-sayers like Colin Campbell. Harper said: “I’m more conservative than Exxon Mobil with regard to future oil resources, but I’m not Colin Campbell.”

Cherry Creek News