The end of the oil era: The fall of civilization, or just a bump in the road?

[QUOTE=ralfy]
According to the IEA, crude oil production peaked in 2005.
[/QUOTE]

Uhuh…I know that you continue to quote this as gospel, though I also note that you continue to either refer to earlier drive by links or new drive by links where you expect the reader to sift through your link to figure out what data is relevant to what you are claiming. While it’s laughably easy for me to do a google search on ‘debunking peak oil occurred in 2005’ and tossing out a bunch of my own drive by links, or linking to the Wiki on predicting peak oil, where I could quote that experts in the field are still predicting that the production peak could happen anywhere between now and 2030 (depending on a host of variables), and that your own EIA (who has it’s own agenda btw) is using a very narrow definition of oil and production to make that claim, I’ll just put it to you this way: How come, if oil peaked in 2005, no one really noticed? Here we are, 9 years later and still chugging along. During that period, China and India (as well as several other countries) have expanded their own demand by huge amounts, while the demand in the US and Europe has mainly flattened or gone down slightly. Supply…demand. Since you claim that the supply in the form of production peaked (presumably meaning it’s gone down since then), how could increased demand is being met? Where is it being met from?

No thanks…if you can’t be bothered to quote the relevant details in your cited link then I’m certainly not going to slog through to make your argument for you. However, I wanted to quote this part because this seems to be the biggest disconnect between your favorite EIA source and just about everyone else. To me, this is where their real bias shows itself, in the repeated claim that unconventional sources are tenuous and will have an ever increasing price tag on production…and that, regardless, they can never be made to produce the same levels and volumes anyway, so we are all doomed, DOOMMEEEDDD!

Reading through their site (despite telling you I’m not going to slog through your drive by links, I actually did take a look), you can see that they clearly have a renewable/clean energy agenda, and also that they still have a bit of a Peak Oil slant as well (several references to the now defunct Oil Drum cite you also seem to like using).

Around $30 to $40 a barrel, following the trend from 1990 to 2005.

From what I remember, the best-case estimates show that shale oil will last for only a few more years.

The other problem is that it has to make up for both increasing oil demand plus a drop in crude oil production. More details are given in two articles shared earlier.

Finally, there might be related data here:

http://www.businessspectator.com.au/article/2014/5/2/energy-markets/shale-boom-already-over?

All you need to do is to prove the EIA wrong concerning reported crude oil production. That’s all.

The answer to your last two questions was answered in my first post in this thread.

The relevant details have been given many times in my previous messages. I’ve also given the sources.

By the way, I used not only the EIA but also the IEA. There are more reports shared here:

https://sites.google.com/site/peakoilreports/

and they come from multiple sources, from energy agencies to international banks to oil companies to military and intelligence organizations.

All of the links I post are relevant. That’s why I keep referring to them in my responses, even though I already referred to relevant details many times in previous messages in this thread.

Finally, the Oil Drum contains reports from various sources. For example, EROI is also discussed here:

“Will Fossil Fuels Be Able to Maintain Economic Growth? A Q&A with Charles Hall”

For more details, try

“Special Issue ‘New Studies in EROI (Energy Return on Investment)’”

Again, I discussed the relevant points about this in earlier messages.

Uh… why don’t you use the price trendline evident between 1950 to 1971? Or between 1990-98, when it decreased by 50%?

In other words… you’re picking and choosing your starting and stopping points to match your thesis. And since the price trend during the first half of your 15 year period was deflationary, I’m still a bit confused as to why you think the period from 1990-2005 was somehow normal.

I don’t have to prove them wrong when their own data doesn’t say what you are telling us it says. I see no evidence of a “peak” in 2005 as we’re pumping out 3 million barrels/day more of the stuff than we did back then.

Per capita doesn’t work as, has been explained before, efficiencies and conservation has made oil use flatline in the US from 1978-present, even though there is a demonstrable rise in our standard of living, population, economy, etc since then.

Per capita only works if it is a finite substance whose use cannot be improved upon. Otherwise, you’re comparing apples (1978) to oranges (2013.)

In short, the US experience and use of oil since the last oil shock does not match with what you are saying is an economic fact. As the past 35 years have proven: A country does not need to increase oil use merely because population, GDP… hell, even the number of vehicles on the road… increase. Our per capita consumption has dropped, though our standard of living has risen.

Gotta tell you… I’m confused as to why you think your theories are established fact when the historical record doesn’t match what they say needs to happen?

You keep on posting this link, but did you notice that all his citations (except for 2) are all to previous works done by the author?

His posts are his cites!

Forgot link to price data: http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=F000000__3&f=A

:dubious: Oil prices have risen because the costs of getting oil have risen slightly (overall average) while the demand from the world has shot through the roof, in comparison to the early 1990s. This is the basic principle of how supply and demand works, before you get to thousands of economic factors that mess with supply and demand.

Outside of that, you are also dealing with a still-fairly-powerful oil cartel (OPEC) that has an intended price point range of $80 - $120 dollars per barrel and are more than willing to cut or increase production to meet that target.

Thus, I’m fairly certain that oil should not be $30-40 per barrel.

[QUOTE=ralfy]
All you need to do is to prove the EIA wrong concerning reported crude oil production. That’s all.
[/QUOTE]

Um, no…it’s not up to me to disprove your case. It’s up to you to prove it. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proofs, and all that.

That’s nice. Perhaps you’d like to include a post number, since, again, I have zero desire to slog back through the thread to figure out what your first post stated at this point.

You’ve posted drive by links, where you basically post a link, make a brief assertion and then leave it up to anyone interested to slog through your link to try and figure out what the fuck your point is. I’m disinclined to do so. If you wish to make a point using a cite, then post your link and quote the parts you feel are relevant to whatever point you are trying to make. Or don’t, if you just want to be dismissed…as you have been in this thread.

No, you haven’t…as you haven’t HERE. You posted links an a brief assertion. You quoted NOTHING from your drive by link, and you leave it up to the reader to click on your link, dig through the page(s) and figure out what your point was and whether the page actually has the information you asserted it does and make your argument for you. Sorry…me no play that stupid silly game. If you don’t want to defend your points with quotes from your links, well, that’s your look out. I’ll just dismiss you at this point and engage with Little Nemo or someone else who is worth engaging.

I am referring to oil price in nominal dollars. It was less than $20 from the latter part of the nineteenth century until the mid-'70s, then reached almost $40 by the end of the decade, then stayed between $15 and $30 for the next two decades.

Now, I’d understand an increase from, say, $30 to almost $50 between 2001 and 2020, but a tripling of the price in less than a decade?

That’s crude oil plus shale oil. The chart presented in the article I shared separates crude oil (the blue region) and shale oil (the red region).

Crude oil has been in a 73.4 Mb/d plateau since 2005, supporting Hubbert’s argument made in 1976 and the conclusion raised by the IEA in 2010.

More details in my previous messages.

The U.S. is not the world.

Oil is a finite substance. Improvements in technology do not make it infinite.

Per capita is logical for very obvious reasons.

Again, keep in mind that the U.S. is not the world.

To find out more about the global experience, please read my previous messages.

If you have any other articles that challenge the author’s argument, feel free to share them.

Also, consider the journal issue on EROI mentioned earlier.

Notice the major increase from 2005 to the present.

The only other time that happened was during the 1970s. That time, U.S. oil production dropped, and with the removal of the gold standard, the U.S. started dealing with Saudi Arabia, leading to the phenomenon of the petro-dollar.

The situation is a lot different now, as global crude oil production is now in a plateau, there are fears of currency wars, and we (i.e., the global economy) need the equivalent of one Saudi Arabia every seven years to maintain economic growth (according to the IEA).

Finally, to meet a growing global middle class, even more. Details can be found in my previous messages.

The reason why it has become difficult to get new oil is because of peak oil.

As explained in the lecture shared earlier, the cartel does not set oil prices.

I did. See my first post in this thread.

Why do you want to participate in a thread if you have no interest in reading its contents?

I already gave my points in previous messages and cited them using links.

I gave relevant points in previous messages. See for yourself.

These two additional sources show that the points I raised are shared in sources other than The Oil Drum.

To recap, my first message with relevant points and evidence:

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=17297119&postcount=78

followed by additional points concerning EROI:

http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=17300166&postcount=99

Do you understand the peak oil concept? It is not a clearly delineated point of inflection, it is a phase that may continue for years, kind of like the apocalypse. Market vectors – the supply/demand/price interplay – drag the peak period out into a lengthy series of fluctuations, so whether or not we have in fact entered the peak period, and when it will or did start, will probably not be known until the full-on decline plays out.

The economic troubles of '07-08 caused a significant decline in demand, because a large number of people did not need to or could not afford to consume as much. That factor kind of skews the numbers, as does the increasing deployment of alternative sources and more efficient vehicles – due in large part to concerns about peak oil (and AGW, which is rather related).

So, yeah, maybe it started in 2005, or maybe in 2012, or maybe it will start in 2017. The trends are based on a lot of variables, I am not convinced that it can be reliably identified, not even after it is “over”. Data is subject to interpretation, you will just have to trust whomever you feel comfortable trusting. But go ahead, continue the fruitless furious fencing.