Accessibility navigation


Global oil peaking: responding to the case for 'abundant supplies of oil'

Meng, Q.Y. and Bentley, R.W. (2008) Global oil peaking: responding to the case for 'abundant supplies of oil'. Energy, 33 (8). pp. 1179-1184. ISSN 0360-5442

Full text not archived in this repository.

It is advisable to refer to the publisher's version if you intend to cite from this work. See Guidance on citing.

To link to this item DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2008.04.001

Abstract/Summary

This paper examines aspects of the case against global oil peaking, and in particular sets out to answer a viewpoint that the world can have abundant supplies of oil "for years to come". Arguments supporting the latter view include: past forecasts of oil shortage have proved incorrect, so current predictions should also be discounted; many modellers depend on Hubbert's analysis but this contained fundamental flaws; new oil supply will result from reserves growth and from the wider deployment of advanced extraction technology; and that the world contains large resources of unconventional oil that can come on-stream if the production of conventional oil declines. These arguments are examined in turn and shown to be incorrect, or to need setting into a broader context. The paper concludes therefore that such arguments cannot be used to rule out calculations that the resource-limited peak in the world's production of conventional oil will occur in the near term. Moreover, peaking of conventional oil is likely to impact the world's total availability of oil where the latter includes non-conventional oil and oil substitutes. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Item Type:Article
Refereed:Yes
Divisions:Science
ID Code:15333
Uncontrolled Keywords:oil supplies, forecasts, resource depletion, oil peaking

University Staff: Request a correction | Centaur Editors: Update this record

Page navigation