PRESS RELEASE: IEA confirms oil crisis as new report from ODAC highlights the solutions
11 November 2008
Just as the International Energy Authority has confirmed the severity of the gathering oil crisis, ODAC, the Oil Depletion Analysis Centre, has published an important new report highlighting the most promising ways to mitigate the threat of dwindling oil supplies. The report, Preparing for Peak Oil: Local Authorities and the Energy Crisis, outlines a range of responses and alternative technologies available to replace oil, and can be downloaded at www.odac-info.org.
In its latest World Energy Outlook, published today, the IEA has outlined the scale and intractability of the threat to the world's oil supply. The Agency has slashed its oil production forecast, and now predicts an average oil price of $100 per barrel between 2008 and 2015, despite the recent slump in prices and the deepening recession. The IEA estimates that oil production in fields that have already passed their peak is plummeting at 6.7% per year worldwide, faster than previously thought and despite massive investment by the oil industry. The Agency says that for its demand forecast to be satisfied, the world must build oil production capacity equivalent to 6 Saudi Arabias by 2030.
ODAC believe this is unlikely in the extreme, and that the IEA is struggling to avoid the obvious conclusion that global oil production will peak in the next few years, a view that is now becoming widespread in the oil industry and among businesses and local authorities.
ODAC trustee Chris Skrebowski, who is also Director of Peak Oil Consulting and consulting editor of Petroleum Review, said "The evidence contained in the IEA's report is terrifying, and the Agency has recoiled from the obvious conclusion – that global oil production will peak in the next few years".
Dr Richard Miller, another ODAC trustee, who recently retired from BP, added "The IEA's own evidence suggests oil production will soon peak or at least plateau. Luckily there are many potential solutions, as ODAC demonstrates in Preparing for Peak Oil. Central government, local authorities and business need to act urgently".
Preparing for Peak Oil outlines a wide range of supply and demand side responses to deal with global oil depletion and oil price volatility which is only likely to worsen in the next few years.