Fri 19th Oct - Totnes - Peak Oil: Myth or Reality?

[ianrcrane]

Press Release:

The Myth of ‘Peak Oil’

With an increasing number of towns being encouraged to consider a future without oil, much of the debate is centered around the theory that the world has reached, or is about to reach, the peak of global oil production capability. The phrase ‘Peak Oil’ has been coined to bring attention to the belief that the world is at, or very close to, the point where reserves of global hydro-carbon resources commence the downward path, which will ultimately lead to the complete exhaustion of global oil & gas resources.

Whilst the theory of ‘Peak Oil’ is being popularized by a sympathetic and compliant media, the oil industry, continues to produce in excess of 90 million barrels each day whilst enjoying record levels of profitability, yet remains remarkably silent on the issue.

The mainstream media is also strangely silent on the existence of alternative theories to Peak Oil. Why is this? Does everyone in the Oil & Gas industry agree with the forecasts that the world is entering the last days of an oil-based economy? If not, what is the alternative viewpoint and why is it not given coverage by the mainstream media?

In addition, the proponents of ‘Peak Oil’ conveniently ignore rapidly advancing well construction, reservoir management and stimulation techniques, which enable more than twice as much oil to be extracted than when oil was first discovered in the late 19th Century. Not to mention the development of production from unconventional sources, such as the massive Shale Oil deposits beneath Colorado, Utah & Wyoming.

In his 2005 book ‘Black Gold Stranglehold: The Myth of Scarcity & the Politics of Oil’, Harvard PhD graduate Jerome Corsi wrote, “Oil companies are making record $100 billion annual profits not because oil is scarce … but because we believe it is.”

Ian R. Crane, a veteran of a twenty-year career in international oilfield services believes that counter theories to Peak Oil should be given equal consideration and people should be given the opportunity to see the truth behind the ‘Peak Oil’ scam. A brilliant deception, resulting in the price of oil escalating from $9.81 per barrel in 1999, to circa $80 per barrel today. Meanwhile, the major oil companies achieve the greatest levels of profitability in corporate history and oilfield related stocks increase in value by as much as a 500%, over a period of just five years.

Ian does not for one moment suggest that we should continue to burn in excess of 90million barrels of hydro-carbons each day but he is concerned that the proponents of ‘Peak Oil’ are inadvertently playing into the hands of Big Oil. As the price of petrol is set to rise above the £1 per litre mark, it’s time to hear the other side of the story.

Ian R. Crane presents Peak Oil – Myth or Reality? at St. John’s Church, Bridgetown, Totnes at 7.15pm on Friday 19th October 2007