Peak Oil – What It’s All About

By Chris Nelder,
author of Profit from the Peak
The End of Oil and the Greatest Investment Event of the Century

The game has changed. It’s time to throw out the old investing playbook.

Index funds, diversified portfolios, momentum trading strategies, even technical chart analysis are more likely to lose you money than increase it in the coming years.

The reason for this heretical position: peak oil.

The concept of peak oil is simple: Oil production rates generally follow an irregular bell-curve shape. It is simply the nature of petroleum extraction that it ramps up to a peak or short plateau, and then declines. This observation has been made in thousands of oil fields (and oil producing nations) worldwide, and is named "Hubbert’s Peak" in honor of the geologist who first described it, Dr. M. King Hubbert.

Peak oil is not about "running out of oil," it’s about the peak rate of oil production. It’s not the size of the tank which matters, but the size of the tap.    Read the entire article:  tinyurl.com/68bopw

Living Within A Shrinking Energy Budget

When the production rate of oil reaches its maximum and begins to decline, the world’s economies will be forced to live within a shrinking, not expanding, energy budget. The economic impact of peaking oil production is what concerns us, not the amount of oil yet to produce. We won’t be "running out of oil" for at least 100 years or more, but it will be produced at ever-declining rates.  continued…              More:  tinyurl.com/68bopw

Demand Increasing Where Oil Is Subsidized

Although oil production has stagnated, demand for oil has not. Gasoline over $4 a gallon has dampened demand in the U.S., but demand is still increasing in the red-hot economies of the Middle East, China and India, where gasoline and diesel are subsidized. As a result, global demand continues to increase by about 1 mbpd each year.  More:  tinyurl.com/68bopw

Oil and the Economy

We have already seen the economic damage caused by oil prices shooting up 40% in the first half of 2008. It has resulted in inflation across the board, because energy is used to make and transport everything. This is particularly true for food: One oft-quoted estimate is that for every calorie of food that comes to your table, it took 10 calories of fossil fuel inputs to grow it, process it, store it, and deliver it to you.   More:  tinyurl.com/68bopw

The Impact On Investment

Energy: The Investment Opportunity of a Lifetime

The answer to the energy crisis is painfully simple: Reduce demand, and increase supply.  Read More:  tinyurl.com/68bopw