Peak Oil - scaremongering again

Aljazeera has jumped on the peak oil bandwagon! Their feature "the scourge of peak oil" is alarmist and lacks economic justification. Dahr Jamail and the chaps in Doha did not do their homework this time, drafting a scaremongering senseless piece.

World oil production - 1970-2010

Many of the arguments proposed have long been discredited by economists and the concept is bogus modelling. The Hubbert curve is a mere Malthusian curiosity. We have reserves for decades and as the prices increase, so will reserves, as new exploration is justified and deposits with higher extraction costs become viable. Scarcity of cheap reserves may slowly rise prices, but brings other reserves to the market. New technology changes both supply and demand and substitution cannot be ignored. Economic exhaustion is not anywhere near, and economic exhaustion will precede physical exhaustion.

Anyway, today's prices already include the best available information about the market, so they will not have exponential growth as prophets of doom try to spread to attract followers.

Marion King Hubbert - geoscientist who introduced the Peak Oil concept