Peak oil theories wrong, oil boss says
The world has an abundant supply of oil, and high petrol prices are just the reality of a globally-traded commodity, ExxonMobil Australia chairman Mark Nolan says. Mr Nolan used his speech to the Asia Pacific oil and gas conference in Adelaide on Monday to debunk the theory of peak oil, which suggests oil supplies have peaked and will dwindle over the next 20 years.

Headlines Pushing Oil Prices
In a world with almost no spare oil production capacity and a near-equilibrium between supply and demand, headlines are ruling the day. Volatility is to be expected in a margin business in which one half percent of over- or under-supply, real or imagined, has caused price swings of $5 to $10 per barrel. For evidence, look at the oil price collapse of 1999, caused by the Asian flu, or today’s persistent $70-per-barrel prices, largely the product of the ongoing Middle East wars. But over the last few weeks, a headline that did not happen and one that did have combined to push down the price of crude from roughly $75 to $68 – that’s a 12 percent drop, and the lowest level in about five months.