Norway              -8.3%
UK                  -11.8%

With Western Europe down 8.7%

This surely must change the geopolitical situation for Europe, and therefore, for the world.  At this pace, if we want to see how an advanced set of nation will try to cope with "peak oil" or depletion, we should be watching Europe.

How long will it be (especially given the Russian/Ukraine natural gas debacle in which Europe was the one to get smacked in the face), and given Europe's increasingly dire position on energy, before some Euro-lectuals start saying and writing that the U.S and the Russians are essentially trying to choke Europe out of existance?

Unless the growth in production is spectacular in other places in the world, it is hard to see how the North Sea decline does not have the effect of giving MASSIVE POWER to the OPEC nations, with the money that comes from it.

What are Europe's options?
>  First, the "dash for gas", meaning essentially a bit of foot kissing of the Russians and the Caspian Sea nations, and some fast building of pipelines and LNG terminals and ships...

>Second, a fantastic push into Africa, and signing long term contracts with the mentioned nations, Algeria in particular for the gas (this leaving us with Trinidad and Tobago as an even bigger lynchpin in our LNG plans, and running behind in the race to get long term LNG contracts unless we get in the fight soon (in 2003, it was said by Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham that the U.S. will face a shortfall of 25% by 2030, but that was using "old" depletion numbers.  Like Britain and Norway, our depletion seems to be speeding up rapidly, so the 25% could get here much earlier...remember, that even a 10% to 15% shortfall, which looks possible by the 2010 is a major emergency.  Weather will be everything in stretching this number out)
>Third, Fourth, and Fifth, NUCLEAR, NUCLEAR, NUCLEAR.  Europe may be the land of the militant "Greens" but even the Greens don't want to freeze to death or see Europe become a slave state to Russia/U.S.
Europe bears much study and watching (we may even may want to try to help them, if we are still able), the wolf is on the hunt there first.