Iraq And The Problem Of Peak Oil

peak oil crisis

Click on link below to be taken to this Iraq Peak Oil article

Article from the 'Centre for Research on Globalisation'

"The problem in oil production is not how much reserves are underground. There the numbers are more

encouraging. The problem comes when large oilfields such as Prudhoe Bay Alaska or the fields of the North

Sea pass their peak output. Much like a bell curve, oil fields rise to a maximum output or peak. The peak is

the point when half the oil has been extracted. In terms of reserves remaining it may seem there is still ample

oil. But it is not as rosy as it seems. The oil production may hold at the peak output for a number of years

before beginning a slow decline. Once the peak is past however, the decline can become very rapid. Past

the peak, there is still oil, but each barrel becomes more difficult to exploit, and more costly, as internal

well pressures decline or other problems make recovery more expensive for each barrel. The oil is there

but not at all easy to extract. The cost of each barrel past peak is increasingly higher as artificial means

are employed to extract it. After a certain point it becomes uneconomical to continue to try to extract this

peak oil."

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