First published in the Independent on Sunday, 22 June 2008
It must be increasingly lonely being Tony Hayward. As the oil price continues to soar there is a gathering consensus that global oil production is nearing some fundamental geological limits, yet BP’s chief executive continues to argue valiantly that the causes of the current oil shock are “not so much below ground as above it, and not geological but political”
A cheap move and a desperate one – a plateau in russian production must have made them believers in peak oil. With transparent u turns now in the mix how long have we really got before Tescos runs out of food for the last time? (I hope the later half of the book offers some hope rather than scuppering all the engineering tricks I had up my sleve.