‘Peak-oil’ doomsayers catch Wall St.’s attention

The death of cheap, abundant crude oil, the forecasters warned, might unleash war and plunge the world into a second Great Depression.

That is not the prophecy of some apocalyptic cult. Kadijk, a hedge fund adviser, had flown from Amsterdam to attend a conference on a geologic theory known as peak oil.

Proponents of this controversial idea say that global oil production is now at or near its zenith. Once the flow crests and starts to decline – and some geologists say that it already has – oil will no longer be able to slake the world’s growing thirst for energy.

The result will be the oil shock to end all oil shocks. The price of a barrel of crude will spiral to $200 – and keep rising. To the “peaksters,” today’s energy crunch is nothing next to the pain that is to come.

“Peak oil is a reality,” said Kadijk, a senior equity salesman at Kepler Equities, a brokerage in Amsterdam. He plans to start a fund to capitalize on what he sees as a looming crisis for the world’s fossil-fuel-based economy and the ultimate bull market in oil.

Herald Tribune