Resource Investor - Energy - Matt Simmons Answers Tough Questions About Peak Oil

By David J. DesLauriers
21 Aug 2005 at 05:10 PM EDT

TORONTO (ResourceInvestor.com) -- By now everyone, especially those who follow the resource sector, have heard the Peak Oil story. Matt Simmons deserves a lot of credit for the publicity he has generated on this subject, and his book Twilight in the Desert provides a detailed and fascinating account of the situation and how it may unfold.
Peak Oil

Peak Oil is a topic that has been covered extensively by Resource Investor. Tim Wood interviewed Matt Simmons in a popular story a couple of months ago, and the outlook of various other industry figures has been aired in these pages.

Pullback
Recently, RI highlighted the fact that after a more than 80% upward move in the past 12 months, the TSX Energy Index is beginning to pull back, possibly foreshadowing a correction (probably temporary) in the price of black gold. Despite the decline, awareness of the issue and investor enthusiasm towards the sector is robust, and everyone remains in agreement that the problem is not going away.

Naysaying the Alternatives
Indeed, believers in the Peak Oil thesis - and their ranks are swelling - have dismissed ideas about how hydrogen and other such sources of alternative energy like biofuels can offset the impact of Hubbard's Peak. There has also been very little enthusiasm or hope for massive international projects like ITER, the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor.

Question Period
Simmons, like it or not, has a legion of doomsaying followers, and recently the Washington Post hosted an interesting and informative online forum which allowed readers to put questions to this well-recognized proponent of the thesis.
( read more ... )