Peak oil is still a HUGE story
By Ben Brangwyn 28th April 2011
As the oil juggernaught (aka world economy) keeps chugging along, let’s not forget the bigger picture
Here’s a hard-hitting and well researched 12 minute documentary by ABC in Australia. This news station was one of the first to start talking about peak oil back in 2006.
Some extracts from the transcript:
Narrator:
“Five years ago, when I first reported on this, the idea world Peak Oil was soon was sort of laughed at by the mainstream.”
Dr Fatih Birol (Chief Economist of the Paris-based International Energy Agency):
“When we look at the oil markets the news is not very bright. We think that the crude oil production has already peaked in 2006”
“The existing fields are declining sharply in North sea, in United States, in Gulf of Mexico. Just to stay where we are today we have to find four new Saudi Arabia’s, this is a tall order.”
Mmmm… find four new Saudis? And if that sounds unlikely, redo that calculation with a realistic EROEI analysis. Saudi oil yielded over 50 times more energy than it took to extract it, and the new “unconventional oils” have an EROEI of well under half that. So perhaps we’ll need more than 4 new Saudis. And if we did find them, what would that mean for Climate Change?
As Fatih suggests:
“The time is running out, the oil is today our lifeline, it is everywhere in the economy, if the prices go up or if there’s a supply disruption this will be definitely very bad news. I think it would have been better if the governments have started to work on it at least ten years ago.”
Exactly.