Mark Colvin

Dr Jim Buckee has just retired as President and CEO of Talisman Energy, a major independent Canadian oil company with a market capitalisation of $25-billion. On the phone from Perth, Dr Buckee told me that ‘peak oil’ was now either here, or very close.

Iran has the world’s second-biggest proven reserves of oil, so its people are now furious that the Government has suddenly brought in petrol rationing. There have been demonstrations, and at least one petrol station was set on fire. (Also a peak-oil perspective from Dr. Roger Bezdek.)

The huge economic growth in the world’s two most populous nations has already started to put extra strains on the oil market. Could the newly voracious Chinese and Indian thirst for oil also have dangerous strategic implications?

If you think you’re paying too much at the petrol bowser now, brace yourself. An expert from one of the most oil-rich countries in the world says the price per litre could soon more than double, and he says that’s his conservative estimate.

Australia will have to import oil by the end of this decade as we move into a world where prices are inevitably going to be higher.