Jean Laherrère worked for TOTAL for thirty-seven years in a variety of successively more responsible roles encompassing exploration activities in the Sahara, Australia, Canada and Paris. Since retiring from TOTAL, Mr. Laherrère has consulted worldwide on oil and gas potential and production. He has served on the Society of Petroleum Engineers/World Petroleum Congress ad hoc committee on joint definitions of petroleum resources and the task force on “Perspectives Energie 2010-2020” for the Commissariat Général du Plan.
Thoughts on the Future of World Oil Production
Nature is complex and human behavior is irrational; only the past explains the future. Matthieu Auzanneau’s book Oil, Power, and War: A Dark History, helps us understand the oil industry’s past, which in turn helps us envision the future of not only petroleum, but also the global industrial economy.
December 5, 2018
World Oil and Gas Production Forecasts Up to 2100
Oil and gas production data are unreliable and the UN should oblige every country to publish true, updated and complete data on energy. This is especially important for fossils fuels, which are a gift to humanity, alas, sadly soon to be reduced because of energy supply constraints.
July 17, 2013
Comments on Maugeri’s Oil Revolution – Part II
An analysis of Leonardo Maugeri’s optimistic forecasts on oil production, which have been trumpeted in the media.
Jean Laherrère, a retired petroleum engineer, worked 37 years for TOTAL on exploration and production of oil and gas.
October 16, 2012
Comments on BP Statistical Review 2012
Digest: The BP Statistical Review has the merit of releasing every year free and convenient updated historical data on energy. This data is recopied from what is reported by national agencies, avoiding diplomatic conflicts. Despite the heterogeneity of the data, the report displays a ridiculous high number of digits, in contradiction with the real accuracy of the sources. The report wrongly adds unconventional to conventional reserves. BP ignores backdating, using obsolete reporting rules that lead to artificial reserve growth. Most economists believe this reserve growth to be the real, when in fact known Oil and Gas reserves peaked in 1980.
August 13, 2012
Updating world deepwater oil & gas discovery
Deepwater oil production will help reduce the decline in world oil production from aging fields. The IEA claims that four Saudi Arabias need to be discovered up to 2030 to replace the present decline in production (about 5 %/a). The deepwater ultimate is likely to represent less than half of Saudi Arabia’s oil ultimate. It is not enough!
May 14, 2012
Why cheap energy is a bad thing
Petroleum geophysicist and author Jean Laherrère explains that we are in the current energy crisis not only because fuel is running out, but because its cost is too cheap. Laherrère, a former TOTAL oil company employee, used his insider knowledge to co-author a game-changing 1998 article in Scientific American, “The End of Cheap Oil,” which studied oil depletion based on the most accurate database of the world’s oilfields at the time.
March 9, 2011