Experts Concerned About Day When Oil Runs Low

Published: 04-Apr-2005

WASHINGTON – Within a couple of hours last week, crude oil prices hit a record $56 a barrel, President Bush fretted publicly over world oil shortages and the Senate voted to open an Alaskan wildlife refuge to drilling.

The converging events drew attention to what administration officials call a temporary global energy crunch. But bigger worries also are bubbling to the surface – fears of a day of reckoning over world oil reserves.

Even as China and India are joining the grab for oil, most experts agree that world production will peak sometime in the next several decades – more likely in the next couple of years, a gaggle of outspoken academics say.

	Saudi King Abdullah Begins Asian Tour, Signaling Shift in Foreign Policy Visits to China, India, Malaysia and Pakistan are significant because the trip spells out the Saudi Kingdom's Look East policy, representing a new reorientation in its foreign policy that was heavily tilted toward the West.
	Production form Mexico's Largest Oil Field Could Plummet The worst two scenarios suggest a drastic decline in output to 875,000 barrels a day by the end of 2007 and to just 520,000 a day by the end of 2008.
	Bush Sees Ethanol-Fueled Plug-in Hybrids as Key to Future Bush said he envisioned a future in which a plug-in hybrid car could drive 40 miles on a lithium-ion battery, then stop at a filling station for ethanol, a fuel usually made from corn, similar to HyMotion Prius pictured below.