Rune,

Great topic and great ideas for analysis.

I just updated the Energy Export Databrowser to include the Coal worksheets from the 2008 BP Statistical Review. Folks can now generate their own graphs for coal production/consumption/import/export for various nations and groupings:

Right away one sees that in Europe outside of Russia, only Poland and Greece are exporters. And it looks like Poland is well past peak coal!

-- Jon

Here's my interpretation of future events. Warning: All predictions should be taken with a pinch of salt, and a sense of humour.

2012: London Olympic Games hailed among Peak Oil aware community as the last great event of modern civilisation
2013: Mexican government becomes bankrupt and is overturned by a military coup. Refugees flee to the United States, but are repelled from the border.
2013: Unusually cold winter causes nearly half a billion people to die. The president of Russia is forced to step down after commenting that it would "save the rest of us money". Vladimir Putin takes over and converts the country into a dictatorship, and subsequent higher European gas and oil prices cause widespread suffering.
2014: The airline industry collapses, and one large company buys up all others, forming a global monopoly. A plane flight from London to New York now costs 6 months of the average American's wages, and flights take place fortnightly.
2014: After several years of flat or declining production, a secret Saudi Memo is leaked to the press, revealing that Saudi Arabia is now in terminal decline.
2015: Iraq suffers civil war, splitting into three separate states. The US government takes control of one third, and the other two are controlled by Big Oil and an Islamic government ruling under Sharia law. One third of Iraqi oil is nationalised, and oil exports are banned in the Sharia sector.
2016: Iran adds a $100 tariff to all oil exports to the west, in retaliation for Israeli threats.
2017: Due to a computer error, the price of oil drops to $1 overnight. Panic buying then sends the price up to twice what it was the day before.
2018: OPEC is dissolved as an organisation, although everyone knows it has held very little real power for nearly a decade.
2020: World war three begins with a stalemate between the USA and China, as both sides try to take control of 12 full oil tankers from Iran that have been idling for over 12 years in Iranian ports.
2021: The oil tankers are accidentally nuked by a trigger happy American president, causing public outcry. Both sides realise that there is no point to continuing the war, and back down.
2025: Through a combination of efficiency gains, electrification and synthetic crude manufacture, Norway becomes first country in the world to reduce Crude Oil consumption to zero.
2030: Worlds first experimental Nuclear Fusion power plant is built, a decade after the first successful fusion experiment. It provides power for a small village.
2035: My children run around the vegetable garden, laughing as I tell them of the "Golden age" of human civilisation.
2040: A reduction in oil demand, due to a massive switch to fusion power, causes the oil price to drop below $5000 a barrel for the first time in 16 years.
2060: Oil is discovered under the newly thawed out Antarctic plateau. Due to ownership disputes, it is never exploited.
2100: Recently discovered vast deposits of oil on Mars become commercially viable. Companies compete to be the first to herald in the "Second Oil Age".

One thing I learned from consulting was that most audiences can't understand more than one variable on a graph. We may have a little more sophisticated audience here, but I still make two or three separate graphs, rather than try to put too many ideas together.

Also, when the graph is complex to begin with, a pictured background adds to the complexity. Where does the graph end and the background begin?

Another trick I learned in consulting is to always number every graph and illustration--Figure 1, Figure 2. It is embarrassing when you have a client in the room and need to say, now page back a little. It also makes graphs easier to refer to when a person writes a post, or when someone wants to ask a question in the comments.

Frankly, if this were a paper submitted by one of my students, I'd give it a barely passing grade.

A pleasure I can guarantee you you will be spared!