Quote:
MMD said:
Have you heard of this claim that the world is at it's peak oil production and demand will far exceed supply in the *near* future (within ten years).



That's not correct as there's more production today than ever before, same as for consumption. What has peaked is the ability of oil companies to replace their oil production with new reserves. Eventually, production will fall and it'll be ugly. The market will respond with higher prices to keep supply and demand in balance. The days of $20 oil are probably over, but not for the reason you think.

The OPEC countries are restraining supply in order to boost prices. About 8 yrs ago, Saudi got pissed at the other nations that were cheating and they flooded the market. Oil fell to less tha $10. My point is that there's enough oil production to push prices back to ~$10 if the countries competed (ie, supply wasn't constrained).

BTW, if all types of oil were added up (including tar sands), Canada would rank #2 after Saudi. And as others have noted, the US has plenty of coal that can be converted to transportation fuels, although at a high cost.