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Australian Government Peak Oil Report

The link is to a copy of a report produced by the Australian Government in 2009 which was then as far as I can tell sat on and removed from the list of reports.

The summary includes the following:
The trends in discovery of oil can be used to project similar trends in the subsequent
production of oil. Using a method developed here, forecasts of future oil/liquids
production for 40 countries/regions around the world have been produced.
The oil production prospects of different countries and regions vary immensely.
However, on balance, when an aggregation is done across the globe, it is predicted
that world production of conventional oil is currently just past its highest point
(conventional oil is oil pumped from wells on land or in water less than 500 metres
deep). A predicted shallow decline in the short run should give way to a steeper
decline after 2016.
However, deep water and non-conventional oil production are growing strongly,
turning a slight decline into a plateau for total crude oil (non-conventional oil is heavy
and viscose or indeed tar-like oil). Given the growth in deep and non-conventional
balancing the shallow decline in conventional production, it is predicted that we
have entered about 2006 onto a slightly upward slanting plateau in potential oil
production that will last only to about 2016—eight years from now (2008). For the
next eight years it is likely that world crude oil production will plateau in the face
of continuing economic growth. After that, the modelling is forecasting what can
be termed ‘the 2017 drop-off’. The outlook under a base case scenario is for a long
decline in oil production to begin in 2017, which will stretch to the end of the century
and beyond. Projected increases in deep water and non-conventional oil, which are
‘rate-constrained’ in ways that conventional oil is not, will not change this pattern.
Importantly, these forecasts assume that world oil production is not constrained in the
near term by reduced demand arising from lower world economic growth. Depending
on the length of time before a return to more normal levels of world economic growth
and resulting higher demand for oil, the dropoff is likely to be delayed.

Comments

Jake Maverick said…
sounds like we best start securing those oil supplies then, it's a national security issue.....

umm.....so why didn't UK or usa bother to re-negotiate those oil ocntracts in the md 90s...? what were they planning....?

now all we need is some big epidemic/ cull world's population by at least 60% (especially in those 'developing countries', that dnt have a 'health service') to make that demand doesn't outstrip supply.....
probably wd also be a good idea to start chipping the surviving/ western populations at the same time you 'innoculate' them....

sounds like a movie, doesn't it? at least as plausible as buildings collapsing into their own footprints and buildings next door suddenly collapsing to when a missile hits them i suppose.....

you getting maasses of my time tonight John, do hope u feel priveleged.....

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