What is Peak oil?
"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."
--Colin Campbell
The Availability of non-conventional oil and gas
Publication date:
2006-01-01
First published in:
Prepared for the Office of Science and Innovation, Department of Trade and Industry, London
Abstract:
There is no longer any serious dispute that the World approaches the end of the First Half of the Age of Oil. It lasted 150 years and saw the rapid expansion of industry, transport, trade, agriculture and financial capital, which in turn led to the development of classical economic theory built around the power of the market place. Much debate is focused on the date of peak production but this misses the point when what really matters is the vision of the long remorseless decline that comes into view on the other side of it.
Oil and gas were formed in the geological past under well understood processes. It follows that they are finite resources subject to depletion. It is axiomatic to state that they have to be found before they can be produced, meaning that discovery has to be mirrored after a time lapse by a corresponding pattern of production. The fact that the discovery of oil has been in relentless decline since it reached a peak in the 1960s means that the corresponding peak of production is now imminent.
Available from: ODAC
