Royal Dutch Shell: Peak Oil Within 7 Years

World demand for oil and gas will outstrip supply within seven years, according to Royal Dutch Shell.

The oil multinational is predicting that conventional supplies will not keep pace with soaring population growth and the rapid pace of economic development.

Jeroen van der Veer, Shell’s chief executive, said in an e-mail to the company’s staff this week that output of conventional oil and gas was close to peaking. He wrote: “Shell estimates that after 2015 supplies of easy-to-access oil and gas will no longer keep up with demand.”

The boss of the world’s second-largest oil company forecast that, regardless of government policy initiatives and investment in renewables, the world would need more nuclear power and unconventional fossil fuels, such as oil sands.

“Using more energy inevitably means emitting more CO2 at a time when climate change has become a critical global issue,” he wrote.

Mr van der Veer is expected to discuss Shell’s energy outlook today at the World Economic Forum in Davos.


Source

So peak oil is there. Not in 2030 as Shell has always claimed, but within 7 years. If no action is taken very rapidly, this will be catastrophic for the economy.

Are there any short-term alternatives? The nuclear fusion plant (ITER) that is being built in France will only come online in 2050.


Note to Mods: I've put it in current events, as claims that peak oil will be realized in a very limited amount of time has always been denied by the MNCs, Shell is today the first oil producer coming out.

i think we,,,as in the usa,,are so lazy we can spend billions on a war---i bet if we wanted to we could drastically reduce oil use

tens years ago--we had decent electric cars---not great--but good---so what happened gm decided to chrush them and california goes with hydrogen--which has also seemed to backfire

and yet a somewhat third world brazil is so far ahead of america--THE SO CALLED world LEADER and innovator

we're still on corn oil---yet i read it takes about 1700 gallons of water to produce 1 gallon of ethanol or whatever---i can see this is the wrong way to head

and yet i did see an interesting fact somewhere----in n. dakota and s. dakota alone there is enuff winf power to power half the countries electric use
duh!!!! when will we wake up----of course i do forget at times that the ptb know this and are gonna make very penny on oil possible

granted don't flame me---i don't claim to be an expert---just some light reading i've done