Peak Oil….Coda

One final word about peak oil. During my series last week I never reproduced an actual chart of peak oil, so here’s one now. The chart below is from former oil company executive Colin Campbell, and his method of constructing it is simple: he estimates oil production from every possible source, including future production from deepwater and polar oil, and adds them all up. The result is his prediction that global oil production will peak in about 2007 and then start declining.

Now, I happen to think Campbell is overly pessimistic, but that’s not really why I reproduced his chart. Instead, take a look at oil consumption from 1979 to 1982, after the Iranian revolution caused crude oil prices to double. As you can see, world oil consumption dropped by about 15%.
The Washington Monthly