Dr Jeremy Gilbert retired chief of BP comments on Peak Oil

Peak Oil is not a major discussion topic right now.  The media and most people are concerned about other actual or potential crises, mainly economic, and they feel that action on the immediate is more urgent than the need to worry about energy supplies.  There is a wider acceptance of the future world oil problem in Europe than in the US; certainly there are a number of EU politicians who are firm believers and who use the term 'peak oil' freely in speeches, without apparently feeling the need to provide justification and without provoking irrational responses.

The world spare oil production capacity discussion is causing some confusion.  People who have never spent time in an oil field have difficulty understanding how there can be so much uncertainty about companies' and countries' production capacity.  Most of them are probably unaware that there is even quite a lot of uncertainty about individual producing units' actual production! 

I believe that the spare production capacity numbers that are generally quoted are grossly overstated and fail to recognize the practical problems associated with opening up wells or production facilities that have been closed-in for long periods.  Such operations tend to be a lot more fraught than anticipated - perforations have become blocked; valves are stuck; lines are gas-locked, waxed or asphaltene-choked.  All of these problems can be fixed, but they take time and they take people, and there are rarely spare people sitting around an oil-field just waiting for the order to bring production back up.  It takes time, much more time than most estimates suggest.

Dr. Jeremy Gilbert, retired BP Chief Petroleum Engineer.  December 20, 2010.

Robert Hirsch is interviewed by Carl Etnier on Peak Oil

Over the holidays Robert Hirsch was interviewed by Carl Etnier for WDEV Radio Vermont in Montpelier. Listen to the interview here.

The peak oil crisis: 2011 – a pivotal year? by Tom Whipple

Interesting new article by Tom Whipple.

New Review of "The Impending World Energy Mess"

The website biofuelwar.com reviews "The Impending World Energy Mess".

Robert Hirsch interview "Best" in 2010

Matthieu Auzanneau's interview with author Robert L. Hirsch makes top ten "best of" moments on Energy Bulletin site. Read the interview with Dr Hirsch here.

Consumer Energy Report Review of The Impending World Energy Mess

Robert Rapier posts review of "The Impending World Energy Mess". The review sparks debate over alternative energy and climate change.

New offshore licenses for exploration suspended

US government backs off from offshore drilling again. The Wall Street Journal implies that future election politics played a big part in the decision. The article also implies that the Alaskan reserves are still in the multi-billion barrel range despite recent USGS reports downgrading the resource to only several hundred million barrels.