The Great Simplification
Peak Oil – The Hedonic Adjustment
The Great Simplification #54 with Arthur Berman
This Week…
Arthur Berman returns to discuss the concept ‘peak oil’, as well as provide an update on where we stand on global oil production vs. the pre-COVID peak. Of most relevance, Art explains how the expansion of what is labeled ‘oil’ by public energy institutions has brought us to a situation today where fully 40% of what we call oil in the USA, is… not oil, but lower heat content products such as NGPLs, ethanol, biofuels and refinery gain. This is a big deal, especially given the refinery situation in USA outlined by Art in his previous appearance on this podcast.
Arthur E. Berman is a petroleum geologist with almost 40 years of oil and gas industry experience. He is an expert on U.S. shale plays and is currently consulting for several E&P companies and capital groups in the energy sector.
Is peak oil, an observation which has been around for decades and repeatedly proven ‘wrong’, still relevant today? Is a specific ‘peak’ even helpful or should we be focusing on the logical implications of a drawdown on finite resources – and how to respond?
And the chart of the day….
Damn the Matrix 
Hi Mike,
As an aside I listen to Nate every week.
As a past lecturer in Education for Sustainabilty in Sydney I am very aware of these concepts however the gist of the course was to teach hopium. I rarely speak to anybody about my understanding of EROEI because most people are not that interested and don’t want to be confronted by our way of life as the issue that is causing the decrease in EROEI. These days I teach kitchen garden schemes in a few primary schools. At least I am building resilience in some.
Grace