The Free Range 'Energy Beyond Oil' Project – The 'Energy' (E) Handouts

E.1. Peak Energy

information/links page

Goto:     publications     'Energy Beyond Oil'     main index

Sheet no.1 in the Free Range 'Energy Beyond Oil' Project's 'Energy' series of handouts looks at Peak Energy – The Limits to Oil & Gas Production.

The laws of physics make it clear that once we degrade the value of an energy resource we can never use it again. So it is with oil and natural gas; we are using the reserves far faster than new reserves are being discovered, and eventually we will run out. However, geological deposits of oil, gas and other minerals are not like the petrol tank of a car. We will not suddenly run out. Instead global production will reach a peak and then fall away. Recent studies suggest that this point may be sooner than most governments wish to believe is the case.

Download handout

A 46 kilo-byte HTML file
A 191 kilo-byte colour PDF file, for viewing/colour printing
A 195 kilo-byte black & white PDF file, for printing/photocopying
A 418 kilo-byte ZIP archive of all the files, for viewing from your hard disk/mirroring on-line.

Background information/links

Articles:

The End of Cheap Oil,
Colin J. Campbell and Jean H. Laherrère, Scientific American, p78-83, March 1998.
Nuclear Energy and the Fossil Fuels,
M. King Hubbert, paper given to the American Petroleum Institute, March 1956.
Oil and gas: what future?,
Jean Laherrère, Association for the Study of Peak Oil & Gas, November 2006.




Reports/documents:

Crude Oil – Uncertainty about Future Oil Supply Makes It Important to Develop a Strategy for Addressing a Peak and Decline in Oil Production (GAO-07-283), GAO Report to Congressional Requesters, United States Government Accountability Office, February 2007.
A Comparison of The Limits to Growth with Thirty Years of Reality,
Graham Turner, CSIRO working Paper Series 2008-9, June 2008.
Peaking Of World Oil Production: Impacts, Mitigation, & Risk Management,
Robert L. Hirsch, SAIC, February 2005.
Economic Impacts Of Liquid Fuel Mitigation Options,
Robert L. Hirsch, SAIC (for the US National Energy Technology Laboratory), February 2006.
Peaking of World Oil Production: Recent Forecasts,
Robert L. Hirsch, SAIC, National Energy Technology Laboratory, US Department of Energy, February 2007.
Uranium Resources And Nuclear Energy,
EWG-Series No 1/2006, Energy Watch Group, December 2006.
Coal: Resources and Future Production,
The Energy Watch Group, EWG-Paper No. 1/07, July 2007.
The Next 50 Years: Four European Energy Futures,
J.J.C. Bruggink, Energy Research Centre of The Netherlands (ECN), May 2005.




Links:

The Free Range Energy Beyond Oil Project – http://www.fraw.org.uk/ebo/
PowerSwitch – http://www.powerswitch.org.uk/
Transition Culture – http://www.transitionculture.org/
The Energy Bulletin – http://www.energybulletin.net/
Peak Oil News and Message Boards – http://www.peakoil.com/
Association for the Study of Peak Oil (ASPO) – http://www.peakoil.net/
The Community Solution – http://www.communitysolution.org/
Depletion Scotland – http://www.depletion-scotland.org.uk/
The Oil Drum – http://www.theoildrum.com/
The Oil Drum: UK – http://uk.theoildrum.com/
The Post Carbon Institute – http://www.postcarbon.org/
Global Public Media – http://www.globalpublicmedia.org/
Richard Heinberg (The Museletter) – http://www.richardheinberg.com/
Oil Depletion Analysis Centre – http://www.odac-info.org/
The All Party Parliamentary Group on Peak Oil and Gas – http://www.appgopo.org.uk/
Energy Returned on Energy Invested – http://eroei.com/
The Foundation for the Economics of Sustainability (FEASTA) – http://www.feasta.org/