PEAK OIL - DOLLAR CRISIS

FTW: ODAC The Oil Depletion Analysis Centre

NEWS RELEASE

NEW OIL PROJECTS CANNOT MEET WORLD NEEDS THIS DECADE

World oil supplies are all but certain to remain tight through the rest of this decade, unless there is a precipitous drop in demand, according to the results of a study by the London-based Oil Depletion Analysis Centre (ODAC).

The study found that all of the major new oil-recovery projects scheduled to come on stream over the next six years are unlikely to boost supplies enough to meet the world’s growing needs.

ODAC analysed a total of 68 ‘mega projects’ with publicly announced start-up dates from 2004 through 2010. In total, these projects would add around 12.5 million barrels a day to world oil supplies by the turn of the decade.

“This new production would almost certainly not be sufficient to offset diminishing supplies from existing sources and still meet growing global demand,” ODAC Board member Chris Skrebowski said.

More than half of the estimated new supply would simply replace production declines elsewhere due to natural depletion, the study found. A modest one percent annual rise in demand over the six-year period would then leave little or no surplus capacity to cushion against unforeseen disruptions in supply.

If demand were to increase by two percent annually, available supplies could fall short of the total needed in 2010 by more than two million barrels a day – roughly equivalent to losing all of Kuwait’s current daily production.

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