Oil Will Fall to Disastrous Levels in 30 Years

With the arrival of peak oil production, the oil coming out of the oilfields is of lesser quality and costs more energy to obtain

Since 2006, Spain’s membership in ASPO has been represented by AEREN, the Association for the Study of Energy Resources. ASPO (Association for the Study of Peak Oil) is a network of organizations in more than 20 countries dedicated to the study of peak oil – the moment at which maximum oil production is reached and afterwards begins its decline. Its Vice President, Pedro Prieto (Madrid, 1950), doesn’t mince words: he stresses that no more than three decades worth of oil remain, insists that the energy situation in Spain is dire, that the days of gas and nuclear power are numbered as well, and insists that the defenders of renewable energy are well removed from reality. In his opinion, without a reduction in the consumption of energy and a radical change in the present development model, it’s impossible to tackle the approaching energy and social crisis. In October, ASPO will hold its 7th annual conference in Barcelona.


Is the strike by the truckers and fishing fleets over higher fuel costs a symptom of the end of oil?

It’s one more episode that will happen more often as it’s confirmed that worldwide oil production has reached its peak, without a predictable substitute on the horizon for oil (and no time to think of one), which is being consumed at the rate of 85 million barrels a day and on which 95% of transportation is based, worldwide.

What is Spain’s energy situation?

Dire, since Spain’s dependence on foreign produced energy and fuel is overwhelming. In 2007, according to British Petroleum (BP), we consumed some 150 million tons of oil’s equivalent (MTEP). The government says that we are “dependent” on foreign sources for 87% of that, but that’s because it considers nuclear energy “independent.” However, a hundred percent of the fuel for nuclear plants is imported; Spain does not control the enrichment process, nor is it the owner of important parts of the basic technology. For me then, nuclear energy is energy which is “dependent” on others.

Middle East Online