Comments on: Declining Oil Discoveries – The Truth Behind Peak Oil

By: Allison Bailes

Allison Bailes — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 22:36:35 +0000

Don,&
Don,
Any drilling bans in existence have had negligible effect on discoveries. Do you really think they've affected the decades-long downward trend in the graph? (See, also, the cartoon I just added.)

George,
Cheap oil has allowed us to do many things we have to learn how to do differently now.

Elizabeth,
The graph is from the Association for the Study of Peak Oil (ASPO), started by Colin Campbell. The data, as indicated, are from ExxonMobil.

Peter,
You're welcome. Five years ago, this dominated my writing (and my thoughts), but I've gotten to a more balanced place with it now. You make a lot of really good points about peak oil, and it's nice to have others in the home performance community who understand the issue, too.

By: Peter Troast

Peter Troast — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 21:12:31 +0000

A–thanks for keeping this
A–thanks for keeping this issue front and center. What we’re seeing with oil prices now, based on the potential loss of just one small producer–Libya–tells the story about just how vulnerable the world economy is to oil prices. Sadly, despite years of talking about it and predicting peak oil’s eventual arrival (whenever you choose to believe that date is) we have hardly scratched the surface of making ourselves a more resilient country and economy.

The other significant piece of peak oil related news in the last several weeks has been the Wikileaks revelations. Peak oil folk have long believed that the Saudi’s were overstating reserves. Now that fear is supported in multiple cables and messages between embassies in the US and SA, from very authoritative sources.

By: Elizabeth Guinn

Elizabeth Guinn — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 21:10:05 +0000

Very interesting graph,
Very interesting graph, however, can you cite your source? I have trouble convincing people without sourced information.

By: George Reynolds

George Reynolds — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 20:44:11 +0000

I always thought the global
I always thought the global warming issue was a distraction from the reality of what is already draining the all of our resources from making any kind of progress to resolving issues. Such as the agriculture system that uses 10 times more fossil fuel energy to grow and process a crop to market versus the calorie content the consumer purchases. Our transportation infrastructure that has to reinvent itself in a decade or whenever the oil kingdoms prefer to do business with countries which we have exported all of our capital, making us a debtor nation.

By: Don

Don — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 20:39:26 +0000

Your graph does not take into
Your graph does not take into account the fact that there has been a ban on drilling in many areas that could deliver new discoveries. We could also get into the discussion about how much Natural Gas is sitting under North Dakota that has yet to be taken. There is no doubt that other forms of energy need to be explored and we need to get away from oil but the early peak oil alarmists had us running out already.

By: Allison Bailes

Allison Bailes — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 19:30:48 +0000

Terry, Middle East oil
Terry, Middle East oil reserve numbers are difficult to know with much certainty, and most of them inflated their numbers a couple of decades ago. The majority of the remaining conventional oil is in the ME, however, and Iraq, I believe, does have quite a bit of what's left.

By: Terry

Terry — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 19:24:14 +0000

Mr. B,

Mr. B,

While I don't disagree with you, where does Iraq fit in this picture? Is it fully accounted for?