It is notable that in 2009, the IEA stressed the importance of oil for economic growth and concluded that 106 million barrels per day will be required by 2030; representing an increase of approximately 18 million barrels per day above current output. Interestingly, in last year's report, the IEA predicted that global production will peak at only 96 million barrels per day in 2035! So, within the course of a single year, the energy watchdog for the developed world lowered its production estimate by 10 million barrels per day!

To complicate matters further, the IEA's latest forecast of 96 million barrels per day of peak production depends on the assumption of finding an extra 900 billion barrels of oil over the next 25 years! However, given the fact that over the recent past, we have managed to discover only 10 billion barrels of oil each year, we cannot help but take the IEA's rosy forecast with a pinch of salt. Call us skeptics, but at the current rate of discovery, it will take us 90 years to discover 900 billion barrels of oil. Yet, the IEA somehow believes that this task can be accomplished by 2035!

David Fuller's view The cost of finding new sources of crude oil and extracting it continues to rise. The world is in a race against time to find sufficient sources of energy for our needs, which are increasing steadily despite more efficient usage. I do not doubt that our species had sufficient ingenuity for this challenge, but we were previously handicapped by complacency and overdependence on crude oil. (See yesterday's Comment for my preferred energy sector.)