Has World Oil Production Passed Its Peak?

dido writes "Princeton University geology Professor Kenneth Deffeyes has been studying world petroleum production data and has come to the conclusion that the world hit peak oil last December 16, 2005. If he is correct, total world oil production will never surpass what was produced last December. From the article: 'Compared to 2004, world oil production was up 0.8 percent in 2005, nowhere near enough to compensate for a demand rise of roughly 3 percent. The high prices did not bring much additional oil out of the ground. Most oil-producing countries are in decline."

Oh, we just need some caribou oil.

[gardyloo]

Who ever said that render farms had to do with computers?

Sheesh, so general

[amliebsch]

Princeton University geology Professor Kenneth Deffeyes has been studying world petroleum production data and has come to the conclusion that the world hit peak oil last December 16, 2005.

Yeah but what time?

So...

[Anonymous Coward]

...we've hit the peak oil again I see.

Re:Further articles

[Anonymous Coward]

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/80C89E7E-1D [aljazeera.net] E9-42BC-920B-91E5850FB067.htm

Weird. Did anyone else notice the black vans with government plates pull up outside their houses when they clicked on th

Re:I've seen this simulated, it isn't pretty.

[unitron]

"shotgun pellets (just seeing if you're paying attention!)"

Funny, Dick Cheney was saying the same thing just the other day. :-)

Use more oil...

[NotQuiteReal]

The faster we use up all of the economically obtainable oil, the sooner people can stop whining about using it all up and the sooner we can get on with whatever is next.

Re:If supply is fixed, let'd adjust demand.

[JanneM]

A big STFU to all the Hummer owners out there.

Just convince Hummer owners that painting them orange and plaid is really cool, then let Dick Cheney out on the streets with a shotgun. You solve the oil consumption problem _and_ any impending shotgun pellet glut, all in one, bold stroke.

Wrong wrong wrong

[countach]

His methodology seems to be that when 1/2 the oil has been used, that is "peak oil". But that isn't peak oil. Peak oil is when the barrels shipped per month hits the highest of all time. That point hasn't come yet. Sorry, it just hasn't. The world has the ability to ship quite a bit more than it is now.

Of course, that just means the oil is being used faster, and when peak oil REALLY comes, the drop off will be rather sudden and acute. Don't panic yet, but DO start building the bunker.

Re:If supply is fixed, let'd adjust demand.

[Jeremi]

A big STFU to all the Hummer owners out there.

Since Hummer owners want to drive a military-style vehicle, I think we should give them the full experience: every hummer should come with an all-expenses paid 6-month stint as a chauffeur in Baghdad. Nothing shows one's masculinity and patriotism more than Supporting the Troops, right?

Re:I've seen this simulated, it isn't pretty.

[baKanale]

shotgun pellets (just seeing if you're paying attention!)

So when we run out of that very important resource, will we be overrun by zombies?

Re:I've seen this simulated, it isn't pretty.

[BitwizeGHC]

There are lies, damned lies, statistics, and computer models.

Re:Further articles

[amliebsch]

Oil hasn't peaked, it's just jumped the shark.

Re:I've seen this simulated, it isn't pretty.

[Squozen]

No, he's right.. the US are great at solving energy crises. They just invade another oil-producing country and pow! Problem solved for another term...

Re:Prius owners are as selfish as Hummer drivers

[njh]

Unless you are already living off the grid, growing all your own food, and never traveling farther from your home than you can walk, you have no moral standing to criticize my choice of vehicles.

Is cycling ok?

Nuke em, Nuke em Good!

[CuttingEdge]

Nuclear reactors are the way to go! The Canadian Tar Sands need to build up the Nukes to power the extraction of the remaining Oil Sands; this will save all the Natural Gas that they are burning now. We need that Natural Gas to heat the homes in the North and to warm the planet with the green house gases so that we don't have as cold winters up north.

Nukes are clean environmentally friendly energy and with new reactor designs can use up to 95+% of the energy content of the fuel.

Let's get fuel from Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and their moons. There's plenty of fuel there.

Hydrogen is awesome. Let's use Hydro, Nuclear, Wind and Solar to power the conversion of abundant water into pure hydrogen.

Let's save our fossil fuels. When we run out lets use the garbage dumps which have plenty of fuel potential in the methane and plastics embedded and not rotting quickly.

Let's mandate the replacement of all lights with LEDs as they are more energy efficient. Everyone needs to upgrade their computers and monitors to the latest energy efficient models.

Oh ya, how about GeoThermal energy. Just a few miles beneath the surface of the Earth is hot hot hot... let's make us of that and slow the planet's orbit down by letting it cool faster.

Let's take advantage of green house gases and warm up the planet so that we don't need to burn as much fuel in the winter.

Let's move to the tropics by encouraging mass migrations. Canadians move to Mexico, Americans move to Costa Rica and Panama while those in Quebec can move to the Caribean French Islands.

Let's Nuke em by building thousands of the new kinds of reactors. Let's grab all the enriched uranium fuel deposits that can be used for weapons and burn it to protect future generations and enable the extraction of energy now and in the coming future.

Let's continue to develop fusion technologies.

Let's put solar cells into the Lagrange point between the Sun and Earth and beam the energy to the Earth via microwaves.

Let's have all the humans on the planet get on bicycles and generate power or wind hand held energy cranks.

Bring it on. Technology to solve are problems.

Let's stop killing people. State sponsored mass killing won't solve the energy problems since wars consume a lot of energy and production capacity which also takes energy.

Let's Nuke Em by extracting energy from the 10's of thousands of nukes. The energy from the control detonations of the bombs will enable massive collection of energy.

Above all let's not freak out from those that predict the end of the world with their Quatrain's of doom and gloom. Embrace the Global Warming and accelerate it. It's the warmest it's ever been for 1200 years, bring it on! Heat is better than cold. Balance is for sissies. Let's make it happen.

Oh, ya all those other energy sources that I missed; let's do them too.

Ob Futurama ref

[TeknoHog]

No, he's right.. the US are great at solving energy crises. They just invade another oil-producing country and pow!

- Thus solving the problem once and for all!

- But...

- ONCE AND FOR ALL!

Mad Max

[ender-iii]

This whole subject makes me want to watch Mad Max over and over while I stroke a shotgun.

Re:It probably doesn't make a difference

[NoMoreNicksLeft]

Really? I spend all my disposable income on buying tanks of CO2 and venting it into the air...

Re:Which oil peak are we on? Deja vu!

[nicklott]

No, that's e-ink, Oil has always been infinite, at least until the last 15 years.

Re:Prius owners are as selfish as Hummer drivers

[Curunir_wolf]

I've even heard people say "no-one needs an SUV" but then, no-one needs beer and iPods, either.

You're wrong about the beer.

Re:If supply is fixed, let'd adjust demand.

[Spackler]

Since Hummer owners want to drive a military-style vehicle, I think we should give them the full experience: every hummer should come with an all-expenses paid 6-month stint as a chauffeur in Baghdad. Nothing shows one's masculinity and patriotism more than Supporting the Troops, right?

I assume I can send the pool boy?