Report

The Oil Price Collapse: The Need for a New Roadmap - Part 1, Resources Economics

posted by Albert Bressand on January 17, 2015

Found in Middle East, categorized in Energy

Tags: Albert Bressand energy oil peak oil price natural resource gas shell

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Headline

The ‘Peak Oil’ perspective: right on ‘peak’, wrong on ‘oil’

Abstract

Reserves must be seen as a co-production of nature and man-made technology. Except for wood and dung that pre-industrial populations could burn on the spot, there is no such thing as a ‘natural resource’. Our advanced energy system is fueled by a combination of stuff-in-place and human skills.  Terms like ‘gas to Liquids’ (GTL) or ‘cracking’ capture the manufacturing element; the evolution underway will not stop there—to the point possibly of ‘oil’ being someday manufactured from CO2 and water. As John and Beth Mitchell and Valerie Marcel and put it in their report for Chatham House in London: “The foreseeable problem is not finite resources but the rate at which these very large resources can be converted into reserves for potential production. Reserves of oil and gas have each more than doubled since 1980–faster than the increase in production. Technologies are developing which are creating new reserves of ‘unconventional’ oil, as they already have for gas.”

To listen to Dr. Bressand's recent discuss on the recent dramatic fall in energy prices, please click here: Bressand Call 1 30 15.mp3.

About Albert Bressand

Dr. Albert Bressand

Dr. Albert Bressand is the Professor of Energy & International Governance at the University College London (UCL). He was the Professor of International Strategic Management in Energy at Rijksuniversiteit Groningen (NL) where he headed the multidisciplinary program ‘Energy Transition at a Turning Point’, and Senior Fellow at the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment, Columbia Law School - Earth Institute, Columbia University in New York (USA). He was also a member of the faculty of the Columbia Business School’s Senior Executive Program (CSEP).  Previously, Dr. Bressand was the Executive Director of Columbia University's Center for Energy, Marine Transportation and Public Policy and Professor of Practice in International and Public Affairs at Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA).

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