The world’s supply of oil is much closer to running out than official estimates admit. A whistleblower from the International Energy Agency (IEA) admitted that the agency has been underplaying the threatening shortage to avoid the devastating effects of unveiling real estimates, which could trigger “panic” buying of oil around the world.
The senior official, whose identity is being held confidential, admitted that the US played an influential role in urging the agency to underplay the diminishing oil resources, and overplay the abundance of oil reserves. The International Energy Agency publishes the World Energy Outlook annually, which measures the supply and demand of oil. Many countries have come to rely on the World Energy Outlook to help formulate their futureenvironmental policies and business plans.
The report analyzes medium to long term energy projections and is used by governments around the world to guide their energy and environment policies. The last outlook claims that oil production can be raised by 22m barrels, from its current 120m barrels a day, although evidence confirms that the world has already passed peak oil production.
The “peak oil” theory is gaining validity where previous predictions from the IEA have been proven to be overzealous of the real amount of oil that can be produced. The IEA previously predicted that oil supplies could rise as high as 120m barrels a day by the year 2030, but has been gradually lowered to 105M barrels a day, as of last year. Many insiders in the organization know that keeping oil supply in a constant supply will one day be impossible, but fears that chaos would arise on the financial markets if the figures were dropped. Oil experts question the supply rates and also believe that peak oil is much closer then we all think.
Title: Key Oil Figures Were Distorted by US Pressure
Author: Terry Macalister
Source: The Guardian/UK, November 10, 2009-11-16
URL: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/nov/09/peak-oil-international-energy-agency
Student Researcher: Katrina Gargiulo
Faculty Evaluator: Peter Phillips
Sonoma State University