Global oil production remains on plateau, BTU content declining
September 17th, 2009The September edition of Oilwatch Monthly is now available from ASOP Netherlands.
Global production of both crude and all liquids remains on the plateau first established in late 2004, down slightly from the July 2008 peak.
What’s revealing is the makeup of all liquids.
The proportion of crude is declining, being replaced by unconventional oil. Aside from EROEI considerations, the shift in makeup of the world’s liquid fuel supplies has consequences. In production statistics all liquid fuels are aggregated as total ‘oil’ production while containing different amounts of energy per barrel produced. For example, a barrel of crude oil contains around 5.8 million British Thermal Units while a similar barrel of natural gas liquids contains 4.2 million BTU. Conversion to BTUs shows that actual available energy worldwide in June 2009 was 3.3% lower than implied by statistics which count only barrels of liquid fuels produced.