The Lloyd's insurance market and the highly regarded Institute of Strategic Studies (ISS, known as Chatham House) says Britain needs to be ready for "peak oil" and disrupted energy supplies at a time of soaring fuel demand in China and India, constraints on production caused by the BP oil spill and political moves to cut CO2 to halt global warming.

The insurance market has a major interest in preparedness to counter climate change because of the fear of rising insurance claims related to property damage and business disruption. The review is groundbreaking because it comes from the heart of the City and contains the kind of dire warnings that are more associated with environmental groups or others accused by critics of resorting to hype. It takes a pot shot at the International Energy Agency which has been under fire for apparently under-estimating the threats, noting: "IEA expectations [on crude output] over the last decade have generally gone unmet."

Read more: The Guardian
Read the entire study here: Chatham House

Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah has ordered a halt to oil exploration operations to save the hydrocarbon wealth in the world's top crude exporting nation for future generations.

"I was heading a cabinet meeting and told them to pray to God the Almighty to give it a long life," King Abdullah told Saudi scholars studying in Washington.

"I told them that I have ordered a halt to all oil explorations so part of this wealth is left for our sons and successors God willing," he said.

A senior oil ministry official said the king's order was not an outright ban but rather meant future exploration activities should be carried out wisely.

Saudi Arabia, the largest member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, pumped oil unchanged at 8.26m barrels a day in June. The kingdom is pumping about 209,000 barrels above its target according to Zawya Dow Jones.

The kingdom's recoverable crude oil and condensate reserves stood at 260.1bn barrels at the end of 2009, the world's largest, according to state-run Saudi Arabian Oil Co, or Aramco.

"Drilling in deep-water oil fields remains essential in spite of the moratorium in the US Gulf of Mexico following the BP oil spill", Total boss Christophe de Margerie said. "If we stopped producing in the North Sea, prices would soar."

Other oil executives including Chevron head John Watson similarly have cautioned against imposing bans on drilling in waters over 200 metres deep.

"All this means extra attention, potential additional costs... and this might mean a slight delay before new projects are announced," de Magerie continued. "This can only have a negative impact over oil prices" and push them higher. The price of oil could easily bounce back to $90 per barrel by year end, as the BP well disaster was reducing investments in finding new fields.

Read more: Upstream Online

In the wake of the Gulf of Mexico catastrophe, the International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates an extended global moratorium on new drilling in offshore regions could cut potential world offshore output by 800,000 barrels to 900,000 barrels per day by 2015.

The IEA is confident in its estimate that 100,000 bpd to 300,000 bpd could be lost if new projects in the Gulf of Mexico were delayed by one or two years until 2015, said IEA's executive director, Nobuo Tanaka.

"If the same one-year or two-year delay happens globally, to global offshore drilling new projects, if that happens, we calculate it is about 800,000 bpd to 900,000 bpd," Tanaka continued.

"If 1 million bpd is struck out from the market, it's big. It may have a huge impact in the mid to the long term. Premium insurance is moving up, many countries are reviewing regulations and are trying to find out if they may have a similar problem in their operations."

Read more: Upstream

Petroleum-rich Kuwait needs to develop heavy oil resources in the Mideast country, which has been looking for ways to keep up long-term production, said a top engineer with Kuwait Oil Co. Kuwait holds about nine per cent of the world´s oil reserves, much of which is higher-quality light and medium crude. Although a significant fraction of heavy oil resources are also present in Kuwait.

"We are actually reaching the maturity stage, where our production will start to decline," said senior reservoir engineer Badar Al-Matar. "We have to maintain that by exploring new resources, which is maybe heavy oil, and enhance our recovery with new technologies and techniques."

The country has set oil production targets of four million barrels per day by 2020. The energy sector accounts for nearly half of Kuwait´s gross domestic product and 95 per cent of all export revenues and government income, according to the CIA World Factbook.

What the Kuwaiti needs to support future production growth is more hands-on experience in heavy oil, Al-Matar concluded.

Read more: Oilweek

The aviation industry now uses a staggering 5 million barrels of jet fuel every day. Many of the worlds largest oil fields are nearing depletion. With peak oil production finally upon us, or very nearly so, the inevitable downward spiral of fuel supplies is no longer a doomsday theory. Without a viable solution, aviation after peak oil will eventually be grounded.

Growth estimates for global passenger traffic range between 3% and 5% per year. Airbus is literally betting the company on the new A380 . Massive airport expansions are underway, worldwide, to cope with the projected increases. Considering how many airports are running beyond capacity, these seem like wise business decisions. But what about the looming crisis in world oil production? Is there a plan for aviation after peak oil?

Read more: Associated Content

Lionel Badal, a postgraduate student at King’s College in London, has been doing extensive work to raise the issue of peak oil. His recent story about how the global oil watch dog failed its mission is both a shocking and informative tale about the peak oil issue and how it has been handled by authorities and agencies.

The intrigues, hidden agendas and events that went on behind the walls of the IEA is an astounding story of how natural science and unconvinient evidence were swept under the carpet to present a misleading outlook.

The full story can be read here: Countercurrents.org

Deepwater Horizon burns

When the oil platform Deepwater Horizon exploded and sank to the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, oil once again wound up at the top of the media’s news agenda. Of course, it also became a blog on Alekletts Energy Mix.

One can also see comments that couple together the catastrophe with our definition of Peak Oil, i.e. “The term Peak Oil refers to the maximum rate of the production of oil in any area under consideration, recognising that it is a finite natural resource, subject to depletion.”

Aftonbadet [literally “Evening page”] is Scandinavia’s largest newspaper and in the editorial of 30 April we can read the following (editorial in Swedish):

The oil companies need to drill deep to get hold of the world’s last accessible drops of oil.

Oil use will probably peak in emerging markets by early next decade, a senior adviser to Saudi Arabia's oil minister said today.

"I think that peak demand will come before peak of supply," Reuters quoted Ibrahim Al-Muhanna, advisor to Saudi Oil Minister Ali Naimi, saying in answer to questions at a conference in Paris. "The demand in emerging economies will take time to peak but definitely it will peak maybe this decade or early next decade," he continued.

A six-year oil price rally that ended in 2008 had led to increased interest in the theory that world oil supply may be nearing its peak as easily accessible reserves dwindle. The economic slowdown and high oil prices has eroded demand, making peak demand being more heard.

"We're sort of at peak demand right now," retired petroleum geologist Colin Campbell, who has long been associated with the belief the world's oil supplies are dwindling, told Reuters earlier this month.

Read more: Upstream Online