A reader has written to me to say that she does not completely understand if we have a serious problem with oil or not, and I have written her a long explanation which I think is worth sharing. That’s the story. What is Peak Oil? Hubbert’s curve which show theoretical extraction from a single oil well, or all oil wells in the World. Source: Wikimedia Commons. A recurring topic in these discussions is the confusion between resources and production. Let me explain. In the world today there exist enormous, I might even say vast, resources of liquid hydrocarbons (a more appropriate name than oil , because it involves many diverse substances which are not completely equivalent). If we take a look at just conventional crude oil, […]