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Your definition of Peak Oil is not the accepted definition. Peak Oil literally refers to the production curve of a single - or set of - oil fields, and the poi
by grammaton 14y ago
Your definition of Peak Oil is not the accepted definition. Peak Oil literally refers to the production curve of a single - or set of - oil fields, and the point at which their production is maximized, and then declines sharply thereafter. Supply and demand are secondary considerations until demand destruction is so far gone that no one wants oil anymore. Until then, the questions are, have we arrived at the peak yet, and if so, how fast do we end up falling down the decline curve?
- einhverfr 14y agoI know it is not the accepted definition, but peak production doesn't really matter in and of itself. If as economists suggest, we have to expect that supply will continue to rise to power an ever-growing economy, one will find the effects hit before the absolute peak in production, therefore expecting to see drastic changes when production starts to decline is a bit late. I think you have to look at this relative to demand because the end of cheap oil requires demand exceed supply which it appears to have done since the oil crisis of 1973 (the oil crisis itself may have been political) but it only could have happened because there was a growing understanding that oil was a limited and finite resource (discovery had already peaked and reserves were about to). This has lead to a post-1973 world where oil producers do not increase production to meet demand, leading to price instability and little changes resulting in occasional price spikes, something we never saw before '73.