Peak Oil: Net Exports Aren't Everything

In Saturday's Wall Street Journal, Daniel Yergin, chairman of IHS Cambridge Energy Research Associates, gave his explanation of what's wrong with peak oil. Here's why I don't find his analysis altogether convincing.

Things just got a little more interesting on the ethanol - and "green" subsidies - front: The association which represents European ethanol producers is requesting that the European Commission take action “against unfair imports of fuel ethanol from the United States.”

Dian L. Chu submits: The ongoing unrest in Egypt and neighboring countries has kept Brent crude well above $100, and the oil market on edge worrying about more chaos. News broke on Saturday, Feb. 5 that Egypt halted natural-gas exports through the East Mediterranean Gas (EMG) gas pipeline after a massive explosion at El Arish in Egypt's North Sinai.

Worldwide shale oil production could add $2.7-trillion to the global economy annually by 2035 by slashing the price of crude by as much as $50 a barrel, PwC said on Thursday. Shale oil production could surge to 14 million barrels per day, or as much as 12 percent of total oil output from around 1 percent now, as it expands from its U.S. base over the next two decades, the world’s largest accounting firm said in a report.

CALGARY — Domestic crude oil production in the United States is on track to surpass imports, Washington’s energy fact-finding arm says, in another sign of shifting market conditions that have punished Canadian energy stocks and cast doubt on multibillion-dollar oil sands expansions.

Warnings that the world is headed for "peak oil" – when oil supplies decline after reaching the highest rates of extraction – appear "increasingly groundless," BP's chief executive said on Wednesday.