Oil production in Australia peaked in 2000. It would have peaked worldwide too by now, had it not been for the shale oil boom in the US. Some interesting work by this country’s most unrelenting peak oil proponent, retired engineer Matt Mushalik, shows that without shale oil – which accounts for 1.5 million barrels a day – world oil production last year was back at 2005 levels. It seems a monumental economic crisis may have been averted. Still, the price of crude oil has stubbornly hovered around its present mark of $US108 a barrel for the past three years even as shale oil production has ramped up. For motorists in Australia, should consensus predictions of a falling Australian dollar come to pass, prices will head higher at the petrol pump in coming years. This currency effect, however, is a sideshow compared with the big question of world oil prices […]