Explaining peak oil: What it is, and why it happens

Abstract

This chapter explains the concept of ‘peak oil’. The term, as used in this book and also generally, refers to the point at which the production of oil from an oil field, a region, or the world as whole reaches a maximum and then subsequently declines due primarily to limitations of resource availability. Note that there can be several such ‘resource-limited’ maxima in the production history of a field or a region; in a field for example from the application of new technology or a significant increase in oil price; and likewise in a region, for example from successive phases of discovery.