Brooklyn Treehugger Matthew McDermott relays word that “world oil reserves are far lower than officially reported, the situation far more serious than publicly admitted, and we’re already past peak oil.”
The Oil Drum is a weblog about energy and our future and “Peak Oil” is a favorite topic.
The Guardian reports that 2 anonymous whistleblowers at IEA (International Energy Agency) say the figures were deliberately massaged, at least in part, to appease the United States.
The first whistleblower — who is still at the IEA and wished to remain anonymous out of fear of reprisal — says that while the IEA has maintained that world oil production can be increased to 105 million barrels per day, from the current 83 million barrels, “Many inside the organization believe that maintaining oil supplies at even 90m to 95m barrels a day would be impossible.”
The second whistleblower, who is no longer with the IEA, said that it was agency policy to not “anger the Americans” and added that we are already past peak oil and that “the situation is really bad.”
If the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) and the International Energy Agency (IEA) were to have made official statements about declining world oil production, then such an opinion would have added weight to the arguments for oil conservation and rapid development of alternative renewable energy sources. Emperor Fossil would not have been pleased.
Other Treehugger Posts on the Topic of Peak Oil
- Five Hundred Oil-Industry Geologists Vote on Peak Oil
- If Peak Oil is Now or in 2030, We’re Still Woefully Unprepared
- Matt Simmons: Peak Oil Will Dwarf Financial Crisis Soon
One Comment
Inspector Romm is suspicious. “This is an odd story,” he notes, “since EIA joined the peak oil camp over a year ago:”