Fossil Fuels

The peak oil crisis: Edging towards reality

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Last week the International Energy Agency (IEA) in Paris released their annual report on the state of the world’s energy resources — World Energy Review 2008. As the world’s energy situation becomes more and more confused, with prices gyrating wildly, and with more voices warning of unprecedented problems just ahead, this 569-page report stands as the most authoritative description of what will happen to the world’s energy supply. The energy policies of the 28 countries that are members of the IEA in theory hinge on the report’s findings – and that is where the trouble comes in. … if one reads between the lines and uses the data to draw one’s own conclusion, the new report simply screams that peak oil and all that it implies is just about here.

The squeeze is on

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“I’d rather you didn’t mention the company by name. In fact, better not mention my name, either, because the story is a disaster. We don’t want (the information) out yet.”

From an officer in a small oilsands company – call him Don Fischer, – that comment sums things up for many juniors. Fischer argues, however, that the recent meltdown in global financial markets is only the killer blow in a credit squeeze within Canada’s petroleum sector that has been developing for three years.