We are all peakists now – Schlesinger
Former US Energy Secretary Dr James Schlesinger today claimed that the intellectual arguments over peak oil had been won, and that in effect 'we are all peakists now'. (more…)...
Oil industry ‘sleepwalking’ into crisis
By David Strahan and Andrew Murray-Watson. First published in the Independent on Sunday, 16 September 2007
Lord Oxburgh, the former chairman of Shell, has issued a stark warning that the price of oil could hit $150 per barrel, with oil production peaking within the next 20 years. (more…)...
Interview with Lord Oxburgh
The former chairman of Shell will issue a stark warning about the world's oil supply at a conference in Ireland later this week. Lord Oxburgh expects that global oil demand will outstrip supply within twenty years as production hits plateau, and that the oil price may well hit $150 in the long term. He accuses some in the industry of having their heads "almost in the sand" about oil depletion, and concludes "we may be sleepwalking into a problem which is actually going to be very serious and it may be too late to do anything about it by the time we are fully aware". (more…)...
Why Dick changed his mind
In a widely viewed You Tube clip, taken from a C-Span interview conducted in 1994, Dick Cheney argues persuasively that the United States was right not to topple Saddam Hussein during the first Gulf War. He cites the potential disintegration of the country and the risk of American casualties as good reasons for the decision not to take Baghdad. So what was it that changed his mind by the turn of the century? An acute awareness of impending peak oil. (more…)...
British energy policy is a dangerous farce
A year ago Tony Blair declared in the Energy Review that securing a ‘sustainable, secure and affordable energy supply is one of the principal duties of government’. He was right. But under New Labour energy policy has veered from criminal to farcical. And with the recent reappointment of Malcolm Wicks as Energy Minister that farce is ready to transfer from Whitehall to the West End stage. (more…)...
Why BP and Shell are bound to merge
By David Strahan. First published in the The Independent on Sunday, 15 July 2007.
BP and Shell are finally about to merge. That’s if you believe the tittle-tattle in the Square Mile. Of course rumours that the two giant companies might wed are hardly new and have been the stuff of bankers’ fevered imagination for years. But there is now an increasingly compelling case why the two energy groups should be integrated. (more…)...
Why Iraq was all about peak oil
By David Strahan. First published in the Guardian, 26 June 2007.
Even as one of the principal architects of the Iraq war washes his hands of the whole bloody mess there is still only a remarkably vague understanding of the real reason behind the invasion. (more…)...