The Peak Oil Crisis (Dec. 31, 2014)
I know that it is getting harder all the time to believe that there really is a “peak oil crisis” lurking out there waiting to engulf our civilization and create all sorts of havoc. Nearly every day now oil...
The Peak Oil Crisis: A Reality Check
For the last four or five years, we have been bombarded with a stream of stories about the “shale revolution.” Horizontal drilling and fracking, mostly in the U.S., were said to have released oceans of new oil and a...
The Peak Oil Crisis: It‘s All Around Us
Ten years ago peak oil was assumed to be a rather straightforward, transparent process. What was then thought of as “oil” production was going to stop growing around the middle of the last decade. Shortages were going to occur;...
The Peak Oil Crisis: When?
For those following the world oil production situation, it has been clear for some time that the only factor keeping global crude output from moving lower is the continuing increase in U.S. shale oil production, mostly from Texas and...
The Peak Oil Crisis: Iraq on the Precipice
The daily newspapers are now full of stories predicting that Iraq, as we know it, will soon disintegrate into three or more warring states. In the last two weeks Sunni insurgents led by the extremist ISIS have routed a...
The Peak Oil Crisis: The Monterey Shale Debacle
Last week the LA Times ran a story saying that the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) is about to reduce “its” estimate of the amount of shale oil that can be recovered from the Monterey Shale under California by...
The Peak Oil Crisis: Parsing 2014
Some 15 years ago when the current concept of peak oil was posited, it was all going to be simple. Somewhere in the early part of the 21st century oil production was going to reach a peak and...
The Peak Oil Crisis: Our Harsh Winter Continues
Two weeks ago we discussed the impact that the polar vortex was having on our natural gas supplies and noted that our stocks of natural gas were already 500 billion cubic feet below where they should be for this...
The Peak Oil Crisis: A Winter Update
As the years go by, those studying peak oil are beginning to develop a better understanding of what has been happening since the concept of limits to oil production came to widespread attention. First of all, it is important...
The Peak Oil Crisis: California’s Bubble Pops
There was an important study released by the Post Carbon Institute last week that gives us an insight into how long our great shale oil bonanza —or more likely, bubble— is going to last. As you might suspect, the...