Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
When the Soviet Union crumbled, oil in the Caspian region — a remote, rather barbaric, highly romanticized region — was accessible to the west for the first time in history. The race was on, as Big Oil and all manner of adventurers, dealmakers, and political operatives traveled to one of the most corrupt and dangerous neighborhoods on earth to embark on a new Great Game with massive geopolitical and strategic implications. (Excerpt from a new book, The Oil and the Glory.)
It’s as if, facing the firing squad of $100/barrel oil, some CEOs, oil ministers, and energy experts have decided to come clean. Still, in some boardrooms, at the U.S. Energy Information Administration, and at Cambridge Energy Research Associates, denial still rules. The last foxhole of the dead enders remains “increased recovery factors.”
The “Big Five” international oil companies (IOCs) are spending less money on oil exploration in real terms despite a four-fold increase in operating cash flow since the early 1990s.
The views of the oil industry on Peak Oil are divided, ranging from a non-event to getting there fast. Here I try to give the opinions of oil company executives about Peak Oil and related issues.
After the CEO of Total (the French oil major) last week, two more CEOs of an oil major came out this Thursday to give stark warnings that mean that peak oil is happening right now. In addition, the chief economist of the International Energy Agency (the IEA) gave an extraordinarily pessimistic interview.
President Bush a peak oiler?
Oil: running out for good this time
Big Oil CEOs point to constraints on supply
Is Britain listening?
Peak oil at Philadelphia forum for officials
NYT: Rising demand for oil provokes new energy crisis
Plunge from the pump in Australia
Cost of oil threatens vulnerable economy
The empty threat Of $100 oil
Offshore discovery could make Brazil major oil exporter
Are men to blame for global warming?
Third of Africa coastline at risk: UN
Feisty Daily Astorian wins award for climate series
Canadian climatologists puzzled by government’s ending of research fund
Climate change and deforestation
US Chambr of Commerce: Wake up to climate change legislation!
Blaming the cyclist in Portland
Athens – asserting the right to walk in an auto-cracy
Auto workers, dealers break from industry over CAFE
CERA chairman Daniel Yergin co-edited a book in 1979 that argued for solar power and energy conservation. The book was pessimistic about the future for oil in an America that had passed its point of peak oil production.
Big Oil struggles with high costs
The slippery slope of rising oil prices
Greenspan: Economy will acclimate to $100 oil
$100 oil forces new energy policy on U.S.
Analysts say burden could spur recession
$100 oil would have a big political impact
As energy prices soar, industries collide
BP CEO: ‘Era of cheap energy is behind us’
This doorstopper opens our eyes to the energy crisis (IEA report)
Responses by:
Shell Oil president John Hofmeister
ASPO’s Steve Andrews
CERA
Jerome a Paris of Daily Kos
Ralph Nader
Libertarian Ronald Bailey
