Category: Peak Oil

The price of oil did today what it has been doing for a while: it waits for a trigger and plunges. As I’m writing this, West Texas Intermediate is down 4.4%, trading at $44.99 a barrel, less than a measly buck away from this oil bust’s January low. It’s down over 20% from the peak of the most recent sucker rally. US oil drillers have been responding by slashing capital expenditures, including drilling, in a deceptively brutal manner. In the latest week, drillers idled 56 rigs that were classified as drilling for oil, according to Baker Hughes. Only 866 rigs were still active, down 46.2% from October, when they’d peaked at 1,609. In the 22 weeks since, drillers have taken out 743 rigs, the most dizzying cliff dive in the data series, and probably in history: You’d think this sort of plunge in drilling activity would curtail production. Eventually […]

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Peak Oil Pulled a Fast One on Me thumbnail I’ll admit that I was completely caught off guard by the recent (and ongoing?) crash in oil prices. It’d be a stretch to say I’m embarrassed by my lack of foresight, although perhaps “dumb-ass” would be a bit deserving. I would say I’m well enough versed with the reality of peak oil : I’ve read perhaps a couple dozen books on the topic, poured through several of the peak oil blogs (upon deciding to end my 5-year Internet hiatus a year ago), have seen several talks given by authors and writers on the topic, and I’ve attended two Age of Limits conferences. Nevertheless, even though there were bloggers out there discussing the possible ramifications of low oil prices, its possibility still didn’t register with me. I’ll explain what I mean by that shortly, but to do that it’d be best […]

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ENLARGE Workers tend to a well head during a hydraulic fracturing operation outside Rifle, Colo., on March 29, 2013. Increased production has driven down oil prices. Photo: Associated Press The environmental movement has advanced three arguments in recent years for giving up fossil fuels: (1) that we will soon run out of them anyway; (2) that alternative sources of energy will price them out of the marketplace; and (3) that we cannot afford the climate consequences of burning them. These days, not one of the three arguments is looking very healthy. In fact, a more realistic assessment of our energy and environmental situation suggests that, for decades to come, we will continue to rely overwhelmingly on the fossil fuels that have contributed so dramatically to the world’s prosperity and progress. In 2013, about 87% of the energy that the world consumed came from fossil fuels, a figure that—remarkably—was unchanged […]

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Login Username: Password: Remember me Login as hidden 1 of 49 Humor and peak oil 3 Comments on "Peak oil explained with cartoons" Plantagenet on Thu, 12th Mar 2015 9:23 pm  Cartoons about how expensive oil is don’t make much sense in the middle of an oil glut when oil prices have fallen to near historic lows when adjusted for inflation. GregT on Thu, 12th Mar 2015 10:35 pm  Oil prices ajusted for inflation during non recessionary periods going back 130 years have hovered between 20 and 30 dollars a barrel. We are currently paying almost double those prices today. As usual planter, you are completely wrong. Northwest Resident on Thu, 12th Mar 2015 11:09 pm  The Teacher made a boo-boo. Name (required) Email Address (required) Website

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March 11, 2015 (NATIONAL) — If you’ve never heard of the concept of "peak oil" don’t feel left out. The news media rarely mentions it even though it may be one of the most significant events in the history of humans on earth. Because if peak oil hits in our lifetime, things could get dicey for every human being on the planet sometime this century. LIfe as we know it in a modern world could change forever. Peak oil is a predicted future event made famous by Marion Hubbert (October 5, 1903 – October 11, 1989) who was a a geoscientist working at the Shell research lab in Houston, Texas. He made important contributions to geology and petroleum geology, including what is called the Hubbert curve and Hubbert peak theory, a basic component of peak oil. Peak oil refers to the point in time when the maximum rate of […]

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BLASTED: An aerial photograph showing what United States military officials describe as a Command and Control Facility in the town of Tikrit, Iraq, after air strikes appears in this recent undated military handout photograph. As the empire continues to collapse, imperialism and the blatant lies (that come with it) will no longer matter. The PTB will plow forward steamrolling anything in the unrelenting ways of “progress”. We all know what the perpetual war in the middle east is about. Most mindlessly go about filling the car and shopping, whispering to themselves, “We see it, we know it, we just are not allowed to say it”, for fear of losing the false sense of security that the deception of empire instill, through delusion of comfort and “security”. “Oh holy crude” sung to the tune of “Oh Canada.” Elijah and the Widow would be proud ( The Peak of The Oil […]

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For a long time, there has been a belief that the decline in oil supply will come by way of high oil prices. Demand will exceed supply. It seems to me that this view is backward–the decline in supply will come through low oil prices. The oil glut we are experiencing now reflects a worldwide affordability crisis. Because of a lack of affordability, demand is depressed. This lack of demand keeps prices low–below the cost of production for many producers. If the affordability issue cannot be fixed, it threatens to bring down the system by discouraging investment in oil production. This lack of affordability is affecting far more than oil products. A recent article in The Economist talks about LNG prices being depressed. LNG capacity ramped up quickly in response to high prices a few years ago. Now there is a glut of LNG capacity, and prices are far below […]

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One of the many barbs often pointed at peak oil proponents is that they are constantly shifting the goal posts. Peak oilers are accused of changing the definition of what peak Continue Reading

President and Vice President, Illinois Renewable Energy Association We were asked recently if peak oil remains an issue. Just as cold weather stimulates doubt regarding climate change the current low price of oil stimulates doubt about peak conventional oil. Such short-term anomalies confuse the public and bring out a new round of denials regarding the existence of these long-term trends. Researchers documenting peak conventional oil provide data indicating it occurred around 2005. Since then the production of conventional oil has been virtually flat. The dramatic increase in the production of oil shale in the United States obscured recognition of the long term implications of the drop in conventional oil supplies. As major independent oil companies such as Exxon Mobil and Shell spent more money on developing new sources of oil the actual amount of oil secured per capital expenditure declined. In response, oil companies cut back on expenditures and […]

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