UK BIZ WANT PEAK OIL REVIEW

Energy security body calls for 'urgent' review of impact of oil shortages; Virgin, Stagecoach and Yahoo among firms calling for measures to address economic dislocation from a sudden rise in oil prices
Terry Macallister, 15 November 2009 (UK Guardian)

"An industry organisation that includes Virgin and Yahoo has called on the government to "urgently" reassess its dismissive view about the potential threat and impact of oil shortages.

"The call from the UK Industry Taskforce on Peak Oil and Energy Security comes after revelations in the Guardian that there is dissent inside the International Energy Agency (IEA) about how soon the world may run out of supplies…[A] petition to Number 10 [called on] Gordon Brown to take up the issue…The Wicks Review into energy issues…on behalf of the Department of Energy and Climate Change, gave scant regard to peak oil issues…"

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"Other members of the taskforce include Scottish and Southern Energy, Stagecoach, the transport group, and Arup, the civil engineering consultancy. Work already undertaken by the taskforce…suggests that more needs to be done to prepare for the potential economic dislocation from a sudden huge rise in crude prices.

"The IEA has dismissed as "groundless" the claims of whistleblowers that political pressure from the US is affecting the way in which future oil reserves and production figures are presented and analysed…[because] more than 200 oil experts have reviewed their numbers, leaving no scope for partisan views."

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"…Swedish academics [recently] unveiled their latest assessments of the numbers and came to even more gloomy assumptions. …The Peak of the Oil Age [from Uppsala University] estimated that by 2030 the world would be able to rely on only 75m barrels of oil a day, compared with the 105m forecast by the IEA…[and argued that the peak of world oil production] might have already been reached.

"…[The petition asks UK Prime Minister] Gordon Brown to take action in response to a recent report by the UK Energy Research Council, which talks of a "significant risk" of oil peaking before 2020…and the 2005 Hirsch Report in the US, which has highlighted the decades-long timespan needed to transform oil-based infrastructure…And while BP and others have said that there is plenty of oil for the next four decades, John Hess, the founder and chairman of the Hess Corporation, the US oil company, told a conference in London last month that a "devastating oil crisis" loomed on the horizon…"