Oil Will Reach Peak in Five Years

Global oil production will peak in or before 2012 – the point when demand will outstrip supply – according to the UK oil and gas charity the Oil Depletion Analysis Centre (ODAC).

Speaking at the annual ODAC conference in Ireland, representatives from the global oil and gas industry forecast that current reserves of 50 billion barrels 'of yet-to-find global conventional oil will result in a plateau at less than 100 million barrels per day before 2020'.

But Ray Leonard, vice president (Eurasia) of Kuwait Energy Company went further by claiming that current trends in bringing new projects onstream indicate that global oil production will peak in as soon as five years.

"Recent forecasts that we are facing a global supply crunch by 2012 [mean that] we have to start asking why our governments are not treating the oil supply issue with an increased sense of urgency," says ODEC director Douglas Low.

By Ozge Ibrahim