Simmons: World oil production may have peaked

BOSTON (Reuters) – World production of crude oil may have already peaked, setting the stage for declining output that could lag demand, a top advocate of the “peak oil” theory said on Thursday.

Matthew Simmons, chairman of Simmons & Co. International, a Houston-based investment banking firm specializing in the energy sector, said U.S. government data showed that the world oil supply has declined through the first half of this year.

Energy Information Administration data showed world supply of crude oil has declined to 83.98 million barrels per day in the second quarter after hitting 84.35 million bpd in the fourth quarter of 2005.

“If you basically have another six to ten months of that decline lasting, then I think for certain we would look back and say, ‘Guess what? We actually reached a sustainable peak in crude oil production in December 2005,”‘ Simmons said at a meeting of the United States of the Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas.

Reuters