Category Archives: Peak Oil

The Bottleneck: Why Lithium Mines Cannot Keep Up

Posted on 27 January, 2023 by alfin2101

Every optimistic prediction about the growth of the EV market is a lie. It takes almost 10 years for a lithium mining project to be fully developed, and even if all current projects are completed on time there will be … Continue reading →

Posted in Energy, Natural Resources, Peak Oil | 2 Comments

Without Fossil Fuels Modern Civilisation is Impossible

Posted on 4 October, 2019 by alfin2101

80% of Energy Comes from Fossil Fuels With over 80% of energy consumption coming from fossil fuels, pretty much everything we have in our economy today is available thanks to fossil fuels. We wouldn’t have today’s homes, schools or grocery … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate, Doom, Energy, Peak Oil, Wind | Tagged | 2 Comments

New Oil Discovery? Get in Line

Posted on 9 February, 2019 by alfin2101

They Keep Discovering Big New Oil Deposits! To the vast annoyance of oil hedgers and peak oil doomers, large new oil fields are being discovered from Guyana to South Africa to Iran to Scotland to Texas to the Gulf of … Continue reading →

Posted in Energy, Oil Prices, Peak Oil | Tagged | 8 Comments

Still Waiting for Peak Oil?

Posted on 16 April, 2018 by alfin2101

In 1920, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated that “the world’s supply of recoverable petroleum” was no more than 60 billion barrels. It was wrong. The world has already produced 1,400 billion barrels of oil. Worldwide, there is about 1,700 billion … Continue reading →

Posted in Peak Oil | Tagged , | 4 Comments

Technology Enabling $20 a Barrel Oil Costs

Posted on 23 January, 2018 by alfin2101

“Really, it’s quite easy” to be profitable at $20, “when you sit down and add up all the ways there are to save money in our industry, and how much waste there is,” added Blake Burnette, CEO of IoT-eq (pronounced … Continue reading →

Posted in Energy, Fiscal Breakeven Oil Price, Peak Oil | Tagged | 4 Comments

Gods of the Apocalypse Fade, as True Believers Slip Away

Posted on 29 March, 2017 by alfin2101

The late 20th century was a mother lode for prophets of the apocalypse. Of all the apocalyptic faiths of the 1980s and 1990s, none was more strongly held than the one true faith in Peak Oil Armageddon. And why not? … Continue reading →

Posted in Energy, Peak Oil | Tagged , | 3 Comments

The Peak Oil Fad Loses Traction

Posted on 15 September, 2016 by alfin2101

What Happened to the Great 2005 Peak Oil Collapse? The rapid growth in North American oil production leading to the global oil glut, has dominated public concerns about oil for the past few years. Oil surpluses are likely to continue … Continue reading →

Posted in Energy, Green Quagmire, Peak Oil | Tagged , | 6 Comments

A Sense of Security is the Beginning of Disaster

Posted on 5 May, 2016 by alfin2101

Humans crave security. They will go to great lengths in an attempt to make themselves feel safe and secure. Unfortunately, there is no limit to potential risks. The ones we focus on are often the least likely to do us … Continue reading →

Posted in Doom, Environment, Everything You Think You Know Just Ain't So, Folly of Prediction, Groupthink, Peak Oil, Rebuilding Civilisation, Survival Prepping | Tagged , | 3 Comments

April Energy Packets

Posted on 5 April, 2016 by alfin2101

Update: North American Shale Becoming Cheaper and Easier to Produce Advances in shale oil & gas production are keeping North American shale in the game long after Saudi Arabia and Russia thought they could out-produce the upstarts into the dirt. … Continue reading →

Posted in Energy, Nuclear Power, Peak Oil | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Oil Price Rock and Roll

Posted on 30 December, 2015 by alfin2101

It’s hard to believe today that in May, 2008, Goldman Sachs analysts were forecasting that oil would reach US$200 a barrel within two years, or that the late Matt Simmons, founder of the energy investment banking firm Simmons & Co. … Continue reading →

Posted in Energy, Oil Prices, Peak Oil | Tagged | 2 Comments

Malthusian Monkeys Screech of Doom

Posted on 3 October, 2015 by alfin2101

Update: New steel alloy has strength to weight ratio of titanium at one tenth the cost (Nature Abstract) When Paul Ehrlich, John Holdren, and John Harte wagered Julian Simon $10,000 that the cost of commodities and natural resources would always … Continue reading →

Posted in Climate, Creativity, Doom, Fertility, Green Quagmire, Groupthink, Materials, Natural Resources, Ocean, Optimism, Peak Oil, Science, Technology | Tagged , , | 5 Comments

Is it Peak Oil Yet? World Oil Glut Stretches to the Time Horizon

Posted on 19 June, 2015 by alfin2101

Lower oil prices, sanctions, and regional instability have caused oil production in Iran, Iraq, and Libya to be depressed. Production in Africa is running into roadblocks caused by low oil prices. And yet oil producers are selling oil as fast … Continue reading →

Posted in Energy, Peak Oil | 5 Comments

Oil Prices: Every Which Way But Loose

Posted on 4 May, 2015 by alfin2101

Update: Why Oil Prices are due to fall — again Oil prices have had trouble breaking out of the $50 to $65 price range. Judging by production estimates, they are unlikely to do so in the near future. The seasonal … Continue reading →

Posted in Dysgenics, Energy, Peak Oil | 4 Comments

Global Oil: Profits, Losses, Supply, Demand

Posted on 20 April, 2015 by alfin2101

Peak Oil Isn’t What it Used to Be The key figures were a 1 million barrel-day increase in worldwide oil supply during March to an 95.2 million barrels a day, and a 1.1 million barrel a day increase in demand … Continue reading →

Posted in Energy, Peak Oil | Tagged | 2 Comments

Planet Earth “Stuck” in Long Glacial Period and Other Random Observations

Posted on 4 March, 2015 by alfin2101

Scientists at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory have produced a geological record of global temperatures going all the way back to the Cambrian Era. The left-hand portion of the graph is high truncated and represents millions of years … Continue reading →

Posted in China, Climate, Peak Oil, Russia | Tagged , | 4 Comments

Why Was Al Fin Predicting an “Oil Glut” in 2006 At the Height of Peak Oil Hysteria?

Posted on 23 February, 2015 by alfin2101

Global Hydrocarbon Endowment In 2015, at a time of a relative oversupply of and underdemand for oil, it is easy for oil journalists to write about an “oil glut,” as if they had invented the concept. But in the years … Continue reading →

Posted in Energy, Peak Oil | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Why Was Al Fin Predicting an “Oil Glut” in 2006 At the Height of Peak Oil Hysteria?

Peak Oil: Isn’t It Time to Start Promoting Safe, Clean, Abundant Nuclear Power?

Posted on 18 February, 2015 by alfin2101

Even in the age of an apparent oversupply of oil & gas, the world is full of “peak oil doomers.” Such doomers believe that human societies are on the verge of a global energy collapse, with a subsequent collapse of … Continue reading →

Posted in Energy, Nuclear Power, Peak Oil | Tagged , | 12 Comments

Oil Prices: Everything You Think You Know Just Ain’t So

Posted on 19 December, 2014 by alfin2101

In July 2008, my Journal colleague Neil King asked a wide range of energy journalists, economists and other experts to anonymously predict what the price of oil would be at the end of the year. The nearly two dozen responses … Continue reading →

Posted in Energy, Oil Prices, Peak Oil | Tagged | 2 Comments

Hogs of Doom: Wallowing in Swills of Apocalypse

Posted on 31 January, 2014 by alfin2101

We live in precarious times. Entire economies are based upon nothing stronger than promissory notes written by thoroughly corrupt, incompetent, and unreliable bureaucratic institutions. Academic institutions are devoted more to self-enrichment and mass indoctrination than to the development of independent … Continue reading →

Posted in Doom, Economics, Folly of Prediction, Peak Oil, Survival Prepping | Tagged | 6 Comments

Natural Gas Says: “Who Needs Oil?”

Posted on 22 January, 2014 by alfin2101

Natural gas is cheap and abundant. If we could find an inexpensive way to convert natural gas into more valuable commodities such as gasoline, diesel, plastics, lubricants, fabric polymers, fertilisers, etc., the global need for oil would drop significantly. Siluria … Continue reading →

Posted in Energy, Peak Oil, Technology | 2 Comments

Peak Oil: Meet Massive New Super-Giant Oilfield in Texas

Posted on 22 October, 2013 by alfin2101

Early estimate from Pioneer Natural Resources are than it could contain 50 billion barrels of recoverable oil, which would make it the second largest in the world, behind only the legendary Ghawar in Saudi Arabia. _RealClearEnergy The Spraberry Wolfcamp oilfield … Continue reading →

Posted in Energy, Peak Oil, Uncategorized | 3 Comments

I Chose the Wrong Century to Believe in Peak Oil Doom

Posted on 2 February, 2013 by alfin2101

Previously published on Al Fin Energy …Peak Oil catastrophism is largely a manifestation of our primary cultural myth: that all things end with suffering, death, and then resurrection. Belief in apocalypse is programmed into western civilization. Given our heritage, “the … Continue reading →

Posted in Doom, Energy, Folly of Prediction, Peak Oil | Comments Off on I Chose the Wrong Century to Believe in Peak Oil Doom