World oil production could delay its peak ‘way ahead into the future’

Peak oil production in the Middle East’s Arabian/Persian Gulf region could be delayed if oil companies would invest more heavily in drilling and extraction technologies and push to explore new sites.

So says Muawia Barazangi, professor of geological sciences in the College of Engineering’s Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. He gave his estimates of the region’s undiscovered oil reserves Jan. 17 at Snee Hall in a talk, “Geologic and Strategic Comments on Oil Resources in the Arabian/Persian Gulf Region,” hosted by the Institute for the Study of the Continents. His comments were inspired, he said, by a recent energy security conference at Cornell.

Using figures and overhead maps to illustrate what he sees as the “huge” amount of oil that has yet to be uncovered in many Persian Gulf countries, Barazangi said he was taking a more optimistic view of so-called “peak oil” (an area’s maximum oil production capability) than have other academic and political analysts. Peak oil is a term that refers to the Hubbert peak theory, which states that oil production tends to follow a bell curve, peaking to a maximum production level, then declining over time.

Opinions vary widely as to when the world will reach peak oil, Barazangi said. Some think it will be within the next 20 years. But he argued that the “exploration story” in the Middle East is not yet complete. Two-thirds of the world’s proven recoverable oil reserves exist in the Persian Gulf, and there are more oil fields to be discovered through offshore and deep-water drilling, as well as more oil to be extracted from existing fields if oil companies would look to new technologies and further exploration, Barazangi said.

Cornell