Peak Oil Essay Example for Free

Peak oil color EssayIn recent years various scientists, among them oil colour engineer Jean Laherrere and petrogeologists Colin Campbell, have argued that global oil takings would peak in the early 2000s. This is known as peak oil, the tipping point in which oil production begins to decline, and is based primarily upon the work of M. King Hubbert, a petrogeologist who worked for Shell Oil order from the 40s to 60s. (Deffeyes, 2001) Hubberts predictions of a dire future for oil were not unprecedented, and many individuals before him had raised demoralize over the future of oil, but ultimately turned out to be Cassandras. As such, it is not only if surprising that any succeeding warnings about oil have been dismissed by both the Ameri sens public and oil companies themselves. However, controversy over the veracity of his claims ended when U. S. oil production began to decline, ultimately proving him correct. (Deffeyes, 2001) The exemplar used in Hubberts peak oil opening h as come to be known as the Hubbert curve or Hubberts peak. This is because his theory, as he presented it to the American Petroleum Institute, rests on the position that petroleum production in any given territory tends to follow a bell curve.Hubbert based this theory on the observation that the oil reserves in any production site are finite, and that when half of the reserves are gone, extraction post begins to decline. (Hubbert, 1956) Any given curve has a point of utmost production where the initial pre-peak points on it are where production increases rapidly due to the combination of discovery rate and infrastructural developments, but after the peak, production declines due to the depletion of reserves.In effect, the cost of oil extraction decreases as production approaches peak, but after peak, the cost of oil extraction begins to increase as less oil can be extracted from the reserves. (Campbell Laherrere, 1998) Hubberts theory came into widespread currency not only after oil top out in U. S, but when it was found that the curve fit production models in foreign oil states as well.