The oil industry is finding it harder to expand upstream capacity, a new report by the Centre for Global Energy Studies has warned.
“Development costs are up sharply, essential equipment and skilled labor are in short supply and host governments want a bigger share of the proceeds,” it concludes.

Interesting article in today’s New York Times about the industry’s latest techniques to get more oil out of the ground and how this might mean that the peak oil pundits are wrong, as more and more oil is being recovered from existing fields.
“Within the last decade, technology advances have made it possible to unlock more […]

Some of big oil’s top executives will gather in Houston this week to discuss dwindling oil supplies, pollution concerns and finding new and more effective ways to produce oil and gas — as well as alternatives to fossil fuels.
At the Cambridge Energy Research Associates annual weeklong conference that begins today, dozens of the industry’s heaviest […]

Here’s one that few saw coming: According the International Energy Agency as reported by the Wall St. Journal (subscription), developed country consumption of oil dropped .6% in 2006. According to the Journal:

Happy New Year 2. The Seattle Times reports gloomily: “Food shortages, cars abandoned, another depression. It’s the stuff of nightmares — and the type of future an eclectic group of engineers, computer experts and others in Seattle believe could await us”.
“Members of Seattle Peak Oil Awareness expect world production of oil and gasoline to peak […]