From News.com.au:
Peak oil ten years away - expertTalk about a fundamental lack of understanding of economics. There is a lot of oil out there that is not being tapped as the cost is too high. Right now, the low hanging fruit is in the Middle East and when that is depleted, other sources will come online. There have been major finds off Israel, Brazil, Cuba (all throughout the Caribbean), the Arctic... You name it, there is probably oil underneath. The problem is these fields are almost ten miles deep. That is expensive to drill and to pump so the price at the pump will be a bit higher. A bit more from Dr Birol:
Global oil production is likely to peak in about 10 years, a leading energy economist says.
The warning from the chief economist at the International Energy Agency (IEA) Fatih Birol comes as figures show Australia's crude production has fallen by 24.92 per cent in the past five years.
Domestic importation of oil is also predicted by the Australian Bureau of Agriculture and Resource Economics to fall to 24,665 megalitres in 2008-09.
"One day we will run out of oil, it is not today or tomorrow, but one day we will run out of oil and we have to leave oil before oil leaves us," Dr Birol told British newspaper The Independent.Ahhh -- the good Doctor is just wanting to implement some social engineering for our own good of course. And he knows what is best because, after all, he is a Doctor. I do not like the fact that Malthusians get so much media attention. It is easy to see why -- forecasts of doom and gloom always sell newspapers and especially when these forecasts are far enough out that the net result is titillation and not outright panic. They have never been right though -- I cannot think of one Malthusian prediction that ever bore out. Can you?
"The earlier we start, the better, because all of our economic and social system is based on oil, so to change from that will take a lot of time and a lot of money and we should take this issue very seriously," he said.
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