Warning over global oil ‘decline’

There is a “significant risk” that global production of conventional oil could “peak” and decline by 2020, a report has warned.

The UK Energy Research Centre study says there is a consensus that the era of cheap oil is at an end.

But it warns that most governments, including the UK’s, exhibit little concern about oil depletion.

The report’s authors also state that the 10 largest oil producing fields in the world are all in decline.

Reliable gauge

As this report points out, the debate about peak oil is a polarised one.

On one side, there are those who say that global supplies have already reached their zenith, and we are unprepared for the crisis that will hit world economies in the years to come.

On the other, there are oil companies and many energy analysts who dismiss the notion that supplies are running out.

The report’s authors admit it is hard to tell who is right, as the world lacks a reliable gauge with which to measure oil depletion.

Problems are created by “inconsistent definitions”, it says, noting the “paucity of reliable data, the frequent absence of third-party auditing of that data and the corresponding uncertainty surrounding the data that is available”.

It goes on: “The difficulties are greatest where they matter most, namely the oil reserves of Opec countries.

“But they also apply at a much more basic level, such as uncertainties over the amount of oil produced by a given country in a given year.

Read more . . .

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Tags: cheap oil, conventional oil, easy oil, energy analysts, energy research centre, global oil, global production, oil decline, oil depletion, Oil reserves, opec, opec countries, peak oil, world economies

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 8th, 2009 at 2:46 pm and is filed under BBC, Consider This, Dire Warnings, Innovation Needed, Need to Know, Project Energy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.