Light Sweet Crude Production Has Peaked.

Information from OPEC's August monthly report indicates that world wide production of light sweet crude, the most sought after kind because it can be easily refined and because it is low in sulfer, is now in decline. Although overall production of oil is still rising, the shift to heavier grades is helping cause bottlenecks that are driving up gas prices because there is limited refinery capacity for these heavier grades of crude.

Chris Vernon's webpage, Vital Trivia ferreted out this conclusion from the OPEC report;

The key point is that non-OPEC light sweet crude went from 41% of 66 mb/d to 34% of 70 mb/d from 2000 to 2004, a drop of 3.26 mb/d. OPEC added 1 mb/d of light sweet crude over the same period resulting in a global reduction of light sweet crude of over 2mb/d showing that global light sweet crude has peaked and is now in decline.

Previously, Chris had reported numbers showing that all major western oil companies, except for BP, had rolled over into decline by 2005.

The numbers are coming in very much the way many peak oil writers had predicted. The relentless upward drive of prices will continue until we can develope renewable alternatives, redesign our living and working patterns to be less reliant on oil, and abandon the idea of constant growth in material wealth.