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Friday, June 15, 2007

Four Years Till Peak Oil Hits?

A big-oil mouthpiece was on CNBC this morning, pooh-poohing a report from the London-based Oil Depletion Analysis Centre, which says that the peak global production of oil will come as soon as 2011.

You can read the story yourself by CLICKING HERE.

From the story: Colin Campbell, the head of the depletion centre, said: "It's quite a simple theory and one that any beer drinker understands. The glass starts full and ends empty and the faster you drink it the quicker it's gone."

Dr Campbell, is a former chief geologist and vice-president at a string of oil majors including BP, Shell, Fina, Exxon and ChevronTexaco. He explains that the peak of regular oil - the cheap and easy to extract stuff - has already come and gone in 2005. Even when you factor in the more difficult to extract heavy oil, deep sea reserves, polar regions and liquid taken from gas, the peak will come as soon as 2011, he says.

Personally, I subscribe to the theory that we'll only see Peak Oil in the rear view mirror -- we won't know we've hit it until after it happens. But I believe Dr. Campbell's concerns are worth listening to.

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