The essence of the Peak Oil issue is production rate. Once you have gone to secondary and tertiary recovery methods (i.e. ‘technology’), the field is played out and flow rates are forever diminished. Hence, you are post peak. Or if you believe Matt Simmons, you are merely applying a ‘super-straw’ and making the problem worse. Managing the tail in this way solves nothing for a world that demands 86M barrels today and even more tomorrow.
For me, the PO debate plays out very simply:
Pessimists: facts, data, more facts, more data.
Optimists: Golly we’re smart and we’ll figure it out. We have Technology(tm)!
Pessimists: more facts, data, reality.
It’s already been said, but The Oil Drum is the best energy blog in the world.
