Over the last four years we have travelled around the world and talked to hundreds
of people to try and find out why the price of oil is going up and up.

IS THE OIL BEGINNING TO RUN OUT?
It is not that we are running out of oil. The problem is the speed at which oil can be produced is slowing and some say that soon oil
production will soon peak and then decline. If this is true it could mean even higher oil prices and serious problems for the world economy.

OPTIMISTS AND PESSIMISTS
The peak oil theorists consist of a group of geologists and industry insiders who make up the Association for the Study of
Peak Oil (ASPO). Their founder Dr Colin Campbell is former exec VP of Fina Oil whilst other members include Jerermy Gilbert,
former chief petroleum engineer at BP and Matthew Simmons, who runs one of the largest energy investment banks in the world.
There are 2 sided to this story however, those that believe that oil will not peak in the near future include Saudi oil minister-
Ali Al-Naimi and president of Saudi Aramco-Abdullah Jumah. Former head of BP Lord Browne also does not believe peak oil
is imminent as well as the Guy Caruso, head of the US Energy Administration (US EIA).

THE TRUTH WILL OUT
Looking at the official global reserve figures you would think there is not a problem. BP's annual statistical review shows about
1.2 trillion barrels of oil worldwide. However, recently many people have begun to question these numbers. The reason is that
between 1983 and 1990 Opec increased its reserves by 300 billion barrels without the supporting evidence and since then
have not changed these numbers despite producing vast amounts of oil since then.

SECRET DOCUMENTS
Further evidence that the world does not have as much oil previously thought appeared in January 2006 when
secret documents, from inside Kuwait Oil Company, were released to the industry journal Petroleum Intelligence Weekly
which appeared to show Kuwait has less than half the oil it says it has.

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