Oil About to Run Out, Leading Energy Expert Says

The age of oil is almost over, according to the chief economist at the well-respected International Energy Agency (IEA) in Paris. Dr. Fatih Birol warns of a catastrophic energy crunch that would bring any recovery from the current global economic crisis to a screeching halt.

The idea of ‘peak oil’ – the point at which the maximum rate of global petroleum extraction is reached – has been around for a while, but much of the public has dismissed it as paranoia. Indeed, despite the fact that the global economy is absolutely dependent upon oil in order to function, most of the world’s leaders have not yet taken the possibility of a major oil shortage into consideration.

Dr. Birol says that oil is running out even faster than predicted, and believes that global production will peak in about 10 years. In most of the world’s oil fields, production has already peaked, and some experts believe we’re already in a rapidly accelerating decline.

From The Independent:

In a stark warning to Britain and the other Western powers, Dr Birol said that the market power of the very few oil-producing countries that hold substantial reserves of oil – mostly in the Middle East – would increase rapidly as the oil crisis begins to grip after 2010.

“One day we will run out of oil, it is not today or tomorrow, but one day we will run out of oil and we have to leave oil before oil leaves us, and we have to prepare ourselves for that day,” Dr Birol said. “The earlier we start, the better, because all of our economic and social system is based on oil, so to change from that will take a lot of time and a lot of money and we should take this issue very seriously,” he said.

“The market power of the very few oil-producing countries, mainly in the Middle East, will increase very quickly. They already have about 40 per cent share of the oil market and this will increase much more strongly in the future,” he said.

There is now a real risk of a crunch in the oil supply after next year when demand picks up because not enough is being done to build up new supplies of oil to compensate for the rapid decline in existing fields.

There’s no longer any doubt at all that we need to move forward rapidly with clean, renewable energy before the global economy suffers a catastrophic setback. With alternatives in place, transitioning beyond dinosaur fuels will be a lot less painful.

Link [The Independent]
Photo credit: Flickr user azrainman

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