For generations, we've taken it for granted. But as prices soar and reserves dwindle, the time is fast approaching when mankind will have to live without oil. Are we ready to confront some really inconvenient truths?
Peak Oil
Is this the end of oil?
Spoiling the barrel
Tiny printing on the inside cover of the document reveals a catch-all caveat. The information presented comes not from primary BP research but from "official sources and third-party data" and "does not necessarily represent BP's view of proved reserves by country". This astonishing get-out clause has been inserted in the BP review every year since Shell was caught lying about its reserves in 2004.
Oil shortage a myth, says industry insider
Although it is widely assumed that the world has reached a point where oil production has peaked and proven reserves have sunk to roughly half of original amounts, this idea is based on flawed thinking, said Richard Pike, a former oil industry man who is now chief executive of the Royal Society of Chemistry.
Oil price pushed to new records as US economy plunges further
The price of crude oil was catapulted $11.31 to a new all-time high of $139.12 in New York, its biggest one day gain in dollar terms on record, driven by an almost unprecedented rise in US unemployment and signs that Israel is preparing for outright conflict with Iran and on the Gaza Strip.
Is There an Oil Crisis Looming?
Peak Oil may be in the future but Peak Oil Awareness has arrived. I expectTime and Newsweek cover articles on Peak Oil any week now marking the official top in oil awareness. It has already made the covers of The Economist and Business Week, the leading indicators of magazine covers.
Has Oil Production Reached a ‘De Facto’ Peak?
Im not sure what to call the peak we have now reached. Maybe it should be called Peak Practical Production. Or De Facto Peak Oil. Or just, Th..Th..Thats All, Folks.
Oil Exporters Are Unable To Keep Up With Demand
"The sense in the market is that peak oil is here and that things will only get worse,"...
Shell sees end of ‘easy oil’ era
"The challenges are huge. We've now got 30,000 technologists in Shell alone trying to find new ways to get oil and gas," Mr Smith revealed.
Cheap oil is history. But why?
The stampede in the oil market is making billions of dollars for a lucky few and leading others to wonder whether the world is finally starting to run dry. Until recently, the notion that international production was about to reach its limits the so-called peak oil theory was the preserve of cranks and crackpots.
Running on empty?
So are the peak oilists right? A series of recent events certainly appears to lend credence to those who argue that the world's ageing oilfields are being sucked dry amid China's and India's determination to lift themselves out of poverty and the west's reluctance to give up the luxuries of modern oil-dependent life.
The End of OPEC
Churchills assessment applies to the current oil situation: this is the beginning of the end of OPEC. That much is obvious; the more interesting question is why?
‘Peak oil’ is here. Now what?
What does it mean that crude oil is peaking? Essentially it means that the world has used half the oil available to extract and will enter a permanent decline, even as world energy demand is rising, with new economic powerhouses China and India growing at an alarming rate. Peak oil does not mean we are on the verge of running out of oil; the overriding implication is that we are entering a period of relentlessly rising prices and ultimate shortfalls.
Shell Oil boss calls for new energy policy
On a day that oil futures touched a record $123 a barrel, John Hofmeister, president of Shell Oil Co., the U.S. division of Royal Dutch Shell, said oil companies need to find unconventional sources of oil as existing sources dry up.
Running out of Oil: Shell Execs Briefed on Peak Oil in 1956
When did Shell executives first learn that the world would one day face the moment of peak oil, known to many as Hubberts Peak? Answer: as far back as 1956 when M. King Hubbert delivered his seminal speech to Shell employees predicting the day when oil reserves would begin to decline. For more than a half century, Shell has known that the world of the 21st Century would begin running out of oil with disastrous ramifications. Yet little was done to prepare society.
Uncomfortable truths about global oil depletion
Shell's oil production has been falling for six years, BP's seems to have peaked 2005, and this week even the mighty Exxon was forced to admit its output dropped 10% in the first quarter of the year.
What the news media says about the website which has cost Shell billions
In July 2007, the One World Trust, an independent research organisation associated with the UK Houses of Parliament and the United Nations, said in an "Accountability in Action" newsletter: "As The Royal Dutch Shell plc website shows, a gripe site can have a profound impact on global organisations". The newsletter went on to say: "The site has not only cost Shell billions of dollars in Russia... "even Shell insiders unhappy with the company use it".