China is rapidly approaching peak fossil fuel extraction according to a new state-funded study led by the China University of Petroleum in Beijing. The study findings include the assertion that China will experience a peak in its total oil production (conventional + unconventional) by as early as 2018. As a result, world oil markets and geopolitics are likely to be greatly affected as China seeks to meet the widening demand shortfall through trade. Accompanying this reality, China will also be reaching peak commercially recoverable coal around 2020, according to the study. The study notes, though, that even though coal currently accounts for around 66% of China’s total energy consumption, a shift away from the resource has been underway in recent years, and that if this shift is accelerated, then demand may fall fast enough that peak coal may not occur there. For more on that, see: China Halts Construction […]