The normally cautious International Energy Agency surprised energy experts on Monday 9 July with a pessimistic Medium-Term Oil Market Report. By 2012, the world economy will be confronted with a growing gap between demand for oil and levelling-off oil supply as OPEC is not willing (or not capable?) to increase its output and non-OPEC production is reaching a plateau.

The news comes at a time when oil prices are again close to record levels and this energy crunch is likely to move prices up in the mid-term future.

Although the IEA does not refer to “peak oil”, it is clear that some of the effects of the supply-demand gap will be the same as the ones predicted by the peak oil experts. Read the excellent analysis of the report by Jerome à Paris in Daily Kos. The Energy Bulletin also has extensive coverage.

Further reading:

• Washington Post: IEA sees oil supply crunch looming
• Climate Progress: IEA warns of impending oil and gas supply crunch
• Times online: Global oil agency warns of supply squeeze

Author : Willy De Backer
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