Malaysia: Time to rethink life’s priorities

The start of the new year was marked among other things by the price of oil touching the US$100 a barrel level. At the same time, the price of crude palm oil is also hitting historically high levels. And, there has been a reported shortage of cooking oil in parts of the country.

These events, as 2008 phased itself into our lives, served to highlight some of the new realities the world will have to face – an increasing scarcity of oil, a looming energy crisis, the depletion of natural resources, higher prices of food and commodities, and a deepening spiral of environmental problems, with a stress on global warming.
The US$100 a barrel oil price may or may not be maintained this year, as some analysts predict a slight decline later in the year. But there is no doubt that from now on there will be scarcity of oil, especially in relation to demand.

Analysts talk of “peak oil” – the moment when world petroleum production hits its peak and then will decline, in some places steeply, from then on.

Some estimate that we have already reached that moment, while others predict it will come within a few years. Oil gets more and more difficult to extract as the best located have already been taken out. The cost of extraction and the price will thus tend to increase sharply.

In Malaysia, oil has been a major source of exports, government revenue and economic growth for decades. But its heyday is past. Last week Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak revealed: “If we don’t find new reserves by 2011, our oil imports will exceed exports.”

Malaysia Star