Peak Oil Update - August 2008: Production Forecasts and EIA Oil Production Numbers

An update on the latest production numbers from the EIA along with graphs/charts of different oil production forecasts. 

World oil production (EIA Monthly) and various
forecasts (2001-2027)
World oil production (EIA Monthly) for crude oil + NGL. The median forecast is calculated from 14 models that are predicting a peak before 2020 (Bakhtiari, Smith, Staniford, Loglets, Shock model, GBM, ASPO-[70,58,45], Robelius Low/High, HSM). 95% of the predictions  sees a production peak between 2008 and 2010 at 77.5 - 85.0 mbpd (The 95% forecast variability area in yellow is computed using a bootstrap technique). Click to Enlarge. 



Notations:
  • mbpd= Million of barrels per day
  • Gb= Billion of barrels (109)
  • Tb= Trillion of barrels (1012)
  • NGPL= Natural Gas Plant Liquids
  • CO= Crude Oil + lease condensate
  • NGL= Natural Gas Liquids (lease condensate + NGPL)
  • URR= Ultimate Recoverable Resource

EIA Last Update (May)

Data sources for the production numbers:

  • Production data from BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2006 (Crude oil + NGL).
  • EIA data (monthly and annual productions up to May 2008) for crude oil and lease condensate (noted CO) on which I added the NGPL production (noted CO+NGL).

The all liquid peak is now May 2008 at  86.05 mbpd, the year to date average production value in 2008 (5 months) is up from 2007 for all the categories. The peak date  for Crude Oil + Cond. is also May 2008 at 74.48 mbpd (see Table I below).

World production (EIA data)
Fig 1.- World production (EIA data). Blue lines and pentagrams are indicating monthly maximum. Monthly data for CO from the EIA. Annual data for NGPL and Other Liquids from 1980 to 2001 have been upsampled to get monthly estimates. Click to Enlarge.

Category AUG 2008 AUG 2007 AUG 2006 12 MA1 2008 (5 Months) 2007 (5 Months) 2006 (5 Months) Share Peak Date Peak Value
All Liquids 86.05 84.11 84.18 85.03 85.49 84.07 84.30 100.00% 2008-05 86.05
Crude Oil + NGL 82.62 80.73 80.87 81.54 82.22 80.96 81.24 96.02% 2008-05 82.62
Other Liquids 3.42 3.37 3.30 3.49 3.27 3.12 3.06 3.98% 2007-06 3.81
NGPL 8.14 7.96 7.78 7.99 8.05 7.97 7.77 9.46% 2008-05 8.14
Crude Oil + Condensate 74.48 72.77 73.09 73.54 74.17 72.98 73.47 86.56% 2008-05 74.48
Canadian Tar Sands 1.10 1.09 1.02 1.19 1.16 1.15 1.06 1.28% 2007-08 1.35
Table I - Production estimate (in millions of barrels per day (mbpd)) up to May 2008 taken from the EIA website (International Petroleum Monthly). 1Average on the last 12 months. Canadian tar sands production numbers are from the NEB and includes updagraded and non-upgraded bitumen. 

Business as Usual

  • EIA's International Energy Outlook 2006, reference case (Table E4, World Oil Production by Region and Country, Reference Case).
  • IEA total liquid demand forecast for 2006 and 2007 (Table1.xls).
  • IEA World Energy Outlook 2006 : forecasts for All liquids, CO+NGL and Crude Oil (Table 3.2, p. 94).
  • IEA World Energy Outlook 2005 : forecast for All liquids (Table 3.5).
  • IEA World Energy Outlook 2004 : forecast for All liquids (Table 2.4).
  • A simple demographic model based on the observation that the oil produced per capita has been roughly constant for the last 26 years around 4.4496 barrels/capita/year (Crude Oil + NGL). The world population forecast employed is the UN 2004 Revision Population Database (medium variant).
  • CERA forecasts for conventional oil (Crude Oil + Condensate?) and all liquids, believed to be productive capacities (i.e. actual production + spare capacity). The numbers have been derived from Figure 1 in Dave's response to CERA.


Production forecasts assuming no visible peak
Fig 4.- Production forecasts assuming no visible peak. Click to Enlarge.

PeakOilers: Bottom-Up Analysis

  • Chris Skrebowski's megaprojects database (see discussion here).
  • The ASPO forecast from April newsletter (#76): I took the production numbers for 2000, 2005, 2010, 2015 and 2050 and then interpolated the data (spline) for the missing years. I added the previous forecast issued one year and two years ago (newsletter #58 and #46 respectively).
  • Rembrandt H. E. M. Koppelaar (Oil Supply Analysis 2006 - 2007): "Between 2006 and 2010 nearly 25 mbpd of new production is expected to come on-stream leading to a production (all liquids) level of 93-94 mbpd (91 mbpd for CO+NGL) in 2010 with the incorporation of a decline rate of 4% over present day production".
  • Koppelaar Oil Production Outlook 2005-2040 - Foundation Peak Oil Netherlands (November 2005 Edition).
  • The WOCAP model from Samsam Bakhtiari (2003). The forecast is for crude oil plus NGL.
  • Forecast by Michael Smith (was at the Energy Institute, now works for EnergyFiles) for CO+NGL, the data have been taken from this chart in this presentation (The Future for Global Oil Supply (1641Kb), November 2006.).
  • PhD thesis of Frederik Robelius (2007):  Giant Oil Fields - The Highway to Oil: Giant Oil Fields and their Importance for Future Oil Production. The forecasts (low and high) are derived from this chart.
  • Forecast by TOD's contributor Ace, details can be found in this post.


Forecasts by PeakOilers based on bottom-up
Fig 5.- Forecasts by PeakOilers based on bottom-up methodologies. Click to Enlarge.

PeakOilers: Curve Fitting

The following results are based on a linear or non-linear fit of a parametric curve (most often a Logistic curve) directly on the observed production profile:

Forecasts by PeakOilers using curve fitting
Fig 6.- Forecasts by PeakOilers using curve fitting methodologies. Click to Enlarge.


Forecast Date 2006 2007 2008 2010 2015 Diff2 Peak Date Peak Value
All Liquids
Observed (All Liquids) 84.54 84.44 85.49 NA NA 2008-05 86.05
IEA (WEO) 2004 83.74 85.41 87.08 90.40 98.69 -2.34 2030 121.30
IEA (WEO) 2005 85.85 87.64 89.35 92.50 99.11 -4.61 2030 115.40
Koppelaar 2005 85.78 86.61 87.60 89.21 87.98 -2.86 2011 89.58
Lahèrrere 2005 84.47 85.23 85.87 86.96 87.77 -1.12 2014 87.84
EIA (IEO) 2006 84.50 86.37 88.23 91.60 98.30 -3.48 2030 118.00
IEA (WEO) 2006 85.10 86.62 88.17 91.30 99.30 -3.42 2030 116.30
CERA1 2006 89.52 91.62 93.75 97.24 104.54 -9.01 2035 130.00
Lahèrrere 2006 84.82 85.96 87.02 88.93 92.27 -2.27 2018 92.99
Smith 2006 87.77 90.88 94.38 98.94 98.56 -9.63 2012-05 99.83
Crude Oil + NGL
Observed (EIA) 81.28 81.01 82.22 NA NA 2008-05 82.62
GBM 2003 76.27 76.33 76.20 75.30 67.79 5.16 2007-05 76.34
Bakhtiari 2003 80.89 80.89 80.24 77.64 69.51 1.12 2006 80.89
ASPO-46 2004 80.95 80.80 80.59 80.00 73.77 0.78 2005 81.00
ASPO-58 2005 82.03 83.10 84.05 85.00 79.18 -2.69 2010 85.00
Staniford (High) 2005 77.92 78.31 78.63 79.01 78.51 2.74 2011-10 79.08
Staniford (Med) 2005 75.94 75.97 75.91 75.52 73.00 5.45 2007-05 75.98
Staniford (Low) 2005 70.13 69.71 69.20 67.92 63.40 12.17 2002-07 70.88
IEA (WEO) 2006 81.38 82.67 83.96 86.50 92.50 -2.60 2030 104.90
Koppelaar 2006 82.31 83.68 85.60 91.00 NA -4.23 2010 91.00
Skrebowski 2006 81.45 82.62 84.20 87.35 NA -2.84 2010 87.95
Smith 2006 82.81 85.45 88.27 91.95 88.60 -6.90 2011-02 92.31
Loglets 2006 82.14 83.02 83.74 84.65 83.26 -2.38 2012-01 84.80
ASPO-76 2006 79.00 81.35 85.06 90.00 85.00 -3.70 2010 90.00
Robelius Low 2006 82.19 82.50 82.35 81.84 72.26 -0.98 2007 82.50
Robelius High 2006 84.19 86.67 89.27 93.40 92.40 -7.90 2012 94.54
Shock Model 2006 80.43 80.01 79.51 78.27 73.74 1.86 2003 81.17
EWG 2007 81.00 80.45 79.78 78.06 69.21 1.58 2005 81.41
Crude Oil + Lease Condensate
Observed (EIA) 73.48 73.05 74.17 NA NA 2008-05 74.48
ASPO-46 2004 72.56 72.25 71.89 71.00 63.55 1.49 2005 72.80
Deffeyes 2004 69.92 69.83 69.64 69.01 65.98 3.73 2005-12 69.94
ASPO-58 2005 73.80 74.65 75.39 76.00 69.50 -2.02 2010 76.00
IEA (WEO) 2006 71.78 72.77 73.76 75.70 80.30 -0.38 2030 89.10
CERA1 2006 76.89 78.60 80.35 82.29 83.83 -6.97 2038 97.58
ASPO-76 2006 72.10 73.66 75.74 78.00 72.00 -2.36 2010 78.00
HSM 2007 73.56 73.53 73.40 72.82 69.53 -0.02 2006 73.56
Ace 2007 73.48 73.03 72.18 66.96 58.47 1.20 2006-01 73.55
Table II. Summary of all the forecasts (figures are in mbpd) as well as the last EIA estimates.1Productive capacities. 2Difference between the observed average year to date production for 2008 and the predicted value (in mbpd), the value in bold indicates the best forecast (i.e. the oldest with the lowest error).


Previous Update:

December 2007

OilWatch last issue:

Oilwatch - August 2008

Khebab@theoildrum.com