OIL CRISIS

Dr. Campbell is renowned for the book he published ..., The Coming Oil Crisis. That analysis has been proved right! Now the crisis has come, so we have Oil Crisis. From the vantage point of a lifetime's oil industry experience, he gives a lucid account of why oil production is set to decline---in a nutshell, we are using more than we are finding, because there is not really any significant amount still to be found. That fact explains why Shell has recently restated, and re-stated again and again, its reserves position; why oil is persistently above $50 a barrel (and why Goldman Sachs thinks $100 a barrel is pretty likely); why Central Asia is in turmoil; why America invaded Iraq---competition, in all kinds of ways, is intensifying for the remaining resource. The problem is beyond the grasp of politicians. They can fiddle with ideas about renewables or hydrogen but they, along with most of humanity, have not really grasped that it is the oil economy that enables about a 7 billion world population to be sustained. A wholly new world is imminent. The transition is not likely to be very pleasant. Dr. Campbell outlines our grim future unless new policies to face reality can be put in place.