- Hardcover: 220 pages
- Publisher: Princeton University Press; illustrated edition edition (5 Oct 2001)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0691090866
- ISBN-13: 978-0691090863
- Product Dimensions: 23.5 x 16.2 x 2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,136,967 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
Hubbert's Peak: The Impending World Oil Shortage
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Review
This book . . . should be read . . . by all politicians, by all students, no matter what their discipline, and indeed by anyone concerned about their grandchildren's welfare. Reading "Hubbert's Peak is the intellectual equivalent of bungee jumping, being simultaneously exhilarating and terrifying.
Review
This book is important in that it is addressed to the general public, which is overwhelmingly ignorant of the fundamentals of earth's resources and basic economics. It will be very useful to teachers, news media personnel, and public policy makers.
(Craig W. Van Kirk, Colorado School of Mines ) --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
(Craig W. Van Kirk, Colorado School of Mines ) --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
The author is a retired professor of petroleum geology, and it shows! He loves to teach geology and he loves to tell corny jokes..
Apart from the opening chapters that lay out the thesis that global oil production is about to peak in just a few short years, most of the book deals with basic oil geology. It gets quite technical, and I could not help but feel that several of the chapters were "filler" material, not directly related to the book's title. Still, it is a pretty good primer on oil exploration science, history and techniques.
Another chapter deals with the mathematics of Mr. Deffeyes's predictions (simple curve fitting, unfortunately) and another (very short one) with alternative energy sources.
The book is short and readable but it provides no new insight. We know that oil is a non-renewable resource and that production will peak in the future. A more useful analysis would have been to take into account the impact of alternatives (hydrogen, solar, wind, etc.)and environmental constraints on supply/demand projections. That would have provided a more thorough (and probably more accurate) view of our energy future.
All in all, a useful book to have if you are interested in energy matters, but not a great one.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This was the first Peak Oil book I read. I am a trained scientist and work in electrical engineering. Facts and logical arguments are vital for me to accept a theory. Whilst I have been aware ever since I can remember that oil is a finite resource and likely to become less plentiful in the future I was not aware of just how serious the situation was.
Deffeyes presents the idea of Peak Oil from first principles. He explains what oil is, what an oil field is, how it came to be there and importantly, how we found the field and extract the oil from it. The language used is excellent with enough humour and stories to keep what could be a very dry subject lively.
Once the above is covered it becomes clear how the rate of extraction form a single oil field must follow the famous bell curve with the area under the curve representing the field's endowment. Summation of the bell curves for all fields in the world goes on the produce a single large bell curve, the area under it now representing the planets total oil endowment. Peak oil extraction occurs once approximately half the original endowment is used - around about now then!
It also becomes clear that new discoveries and technology improvements are unlikely to be significant.
Deffeyes writes with great authority. He has been working as a geologist both for the oil industry and latter in academia his entire life.
The book is focused on oil and oil extraction and nothing else. It does not address any economic, sociological or political implications of Peak Oil.
I'd recommend this book to anyone who desires a logical, technical explanation of why less oil will be available in the near future than now. That single point is covered extremely well, making this book a fantastic introduction to Peak Oil.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Are you concerned about the current oil and gasoline prices? Do you want to understand what will happen in the future with energy and our standard of living? Then you must read this book. And you will learn that in 1956 a geologist working for Shell Oil, M. King Hubbert, made a prediction (in a paper titled "Nuclear Energy and the Fossil Fuels"). Hubbert then predicted that all U.S. oil production would peak in the early 1970s. At the beginning, all the experts and gurus discarded this men's prediction. But he was right, because U.S. oil production peaked out in 1970. Afterwards, mainly in the 1990s, geologists, oil engineers and analysts began referring to Hubbert's Peak, and using his methods to estimate the peak year for word oil. That is to say, at what point humanity will have consumed half of all world oil endowment, which took hundred of million of years to accumulate. A point that only takes 100 years to reach since oil production started ..... If the actual predictions are correct ( Hubbert's curve is not longer debatable; pending issue is the correct peak year, now estimated to be between 2007 and 2012) the implications for world economy, oil prices, the premises of occidental civilization, will be devastating. So, even if you are not into oil, gas or energy, I consider this book to be of mandatory reading to better understand the workings of the energy world, and dismiss certain current myths, like the possibility of expanding oil production radically through new methods; drilling deeper or in new places. The author of this book, Professor Kenneth Deffeyes, Professor Emeritus at Princeton University, is highly qualified to take you on a fascinating ride, which will qualify non experts to better understand all the factors involved in oil production and future possibilities. Reader will comprehend the origins of oil; what are reservoirs and oil traps; how does one find oil; what are the products that derive from oil, and how do they impact our current lives; how do you drill for oil and extract it; where and when can you discover an oil field. Better yet, this book will leave you in a position to better assess the future of fossil fuels, and certain realities about much discussed, but seldom understood, alternative energy sources. Congrats to Professor Deffeyes, for preaching a clear and understandable energy Gospel. He has proven his worth, as an ex fellow worker of Magister Hubbert, when he started his personal journey, back in the 1950s, at Shell's research lab in Houston....A review by Luciano Lupini.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
The decline of oil
Kenneth S. Deffeyes was raised on oil - his father was a petroleum engineer, he grew up in the heart of the oil industry, studied geology, worked for Shell Oil, and went on to... Read more
Published on 2 April 2009 by Budge Burgess
The end of oil is written in rock
Oil is not running out, we have plenty of oil. However, we need increasing supplies of oil to fuel the exponential growth of our economies, and therein lies a problem. Why? Read more
Published on 16 Aug 2004 by Mr. T. G. Rose
Highly Recommended!
When a wise old codger of rural roots warns you in humble fashion, "Pardon me, sir, but I dare say you're headed down the wrong road! Read more
Published on 14 Jun 2004 by Rolf Dobelli
Highly Recommended!
When a wise old codger of rural roots warns you in humble fashion, "Pardon me, sir, but I dare say you're headed down the wrong road! Read more
Published on 10 April 2003 by Rolf Dobelli
An important book on oil and economy
Kenneth S. Deffeyes, a respected petroleum engineer, has written a convincing scientific book about history and future of oil exploration and production. Read more
Published on 18 Jan 2002 by P. Peeters
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