In the last press review of 2015 I asked if that had been the year petroleum peaked. The question mark was not just a precaution, the uncertainty was really there. Five months later the reported world petroleum extraction rate is pretty much still where it was then. This is not a surprise, but the impact of two years of depressed prices is over due. Nevertheless, during these five months of lethargy the information I gathered brings me considerably closer to removing the question mark from the sentence and acknowledging that a long term decline is settling in. Understanding the present petroleum market as a feature of the supply destruction – demand destruction cycle makes this case clear. Looking Backwards Worldwide petroleum extraction hit some sort of ceiling back in 2004, once it crossed above 70 Mb/d. The volume coming to the market kept increasing, but at a shy pace. […]