Talk:Peak oil

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Peak oil was one of the Geography and places good articles, but it has been removed from the list. There are suggestions below for improving the article to meet the good article criteria. Once these issues have been addressed, the article can be renominated. Editors may also seek a reassessment of the decision if they believe there was a mistake.

Article milestones
Date	Process	Result
July 17, 2007	Good article nominee	Listed
July 27, 2009	Good article reassessment	Kept
August 10, 2014	Good article reassessment	Delisted
November 21, 2015	Good article reassessment	Listed
September 26, 2019	Good article reassessment	Delisted
A fact from this article appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the "Did you know?" column on January 19, 2016. The text of the entry was: Did you know ... that peak oil* is the point in time when the maximum rate of extraction of petroleum is reached, after which it is expected to decline?*
Current status: Delisted good article

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Comment moved from article to talk page

I may have found an error in this***. coveries made since then. Additionally, the reported 1.5 billion barrels (240×106 m3) of oil burned off by Iraqi soldiers in the First Persian Gulf War[55] are conspicuously missing from Kuwait's figures. ** I believe it should read ten to the ninth power. ** I'll need somebody to verify that however. — Preceding text originally posted on peak oil by Swan899 (talk⋅contribs) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Excirial (talk • contribs) 08:20, 30 May 2014‎ Excirial (UTC)

Negative spot prices

Or the greatest oversupply of oil in the history of mankind. Yet I read the article almost since the inception and for instance when oil hit $150/bbl that wae cause for POV pushing that the peak oil is finally here.

First sentence

The first sentence now reads

Peak oil is the theorized point in time when the maximum rate of global oil production will occur, after which oil production will begin an irreversible decline.

I would prefer sometime like

The year of peak oil demand is when global demand for petroleum is highest.

based on modern sources such as https://www.cnbc.com/2023/10/05/peak-crude-demand-is-fueling-anger-and-argument-in-the-world-of-oil.html

I think this would be better because:

1) It emphasizes demand which is the current meaning - the historic meaning about supply can be explained later

2) It is shorter and does not use difficult words like “theorized” and “irreversible” Chidgk1 (talk) 17:49, 18 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

"Peak Oil Demand" is a different concept, this article is about "peak oil" (this concept is mainly about supply). In theory demand for oil is infinite, as everybody wants to drive some low MPG SUV, but can't afford it. (But I don't mean to start an argument about it here).

Of course I would want to add a section about peak oil demand in the 'demand' section of this article.

Also there is an easy English Wikipedia page so we don't need to simplify the language. It's not hard to read, I don't mean to offend you though. I added "theorized" since it hasn't really happened yet. "Irreversible" was a part of this article before I came here. TheFella03 (talk) 18:10, 18 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I suspect the meaning of “peak oil” has changed since the article was written many years ago. But the people at WikiProject_Energy should know better than me so I will put a note on their talk page encouraging them to comment here and perhaps even improve the article too. Chidgk1 (talk) 18:17, 18 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Fair. I do want to add "peak oil demand" in the oil demand section, so don't worry. TheFella03 (talk) 18:19, 18 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

No response from energy project - I still think first sentence should be changed - by the way https://www.iea.org/reports/clean-energy-market-monitor-march-2024 says 2023 demand still less than pre-pandemic Chidgk1 (talk) 20:17, 30 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

When should we remove the improve article tag?

I think we're almost done. By the way, please look over my changes to see if they're okay. I also tried to fix up citations a bit. I also tried to add more balance to the article and removed doomerism, and especially I removed outdated information. Some graphics are still old, but I am not that familiar with adding images to Wikipedia. The last thing I might want to add is some corrections to the supply section, but other than that I'm out of ideas. TheFella03 (talk) 01:24, 19 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@TheFella03 Thanks for improving the article.

Re images if you can find what you need in Wikimedia Commons it is very easy to add here by clicking ‘+’ in the top row of icons in Visual Editor. Otherwise look in Our World in Data and upload to Wikimedia Commons. Any problems with images ask on my talk page or at help desk.

Re your main question I suggest you remove the tags and ask for wikipedia:Peer review so I and hopefully others can write some suggestions there. I still think the first sentence and the article should be more about demand so perhaps a peer review will show whether others agree or disagree. Chidgk1 (talk) 17:42, 24 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Chidgk1 Oh okay, thank you. TheFella03 (talk) 03:33, 25 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Well before we ask for a peer review, I'd still like to fix up the article a bit more.

For transparency, I'd like to mention the parts I removed that were previously a part of the article. I'm using the December 25th edition to read what was there before everything got changed. I removed:

The previous 2nd section, "Modeling global oil production"

As it was simply predictions, but it should actually be a section again. Hubbert linearization and such is what we could add.

A minor subsection previously called "Anticipated production by major agencies"

More outdated prediction stuff.

A section called "Control over supply"

Which included stuff about how the oil supply may be controlled politically, but honestly it was too much information for one article therefore I removed it. The text also already exists on other pages, the section talked about Nationalization of oil supplies & OPEC influence on supply.

A long section on oil prices

Honestly, it is relevant, but it was literally too much info, as noted in the old maintenance tag of too much niche detail. It previously included information about the history of oil prices, and the 'effects of oil price,' which do have their own articles.

Peakists

A short section on a supposed subculture of doomers. Doesn't really seem relevant to the main topic.

Otherwise, instead of removing, I tried to reword everything else. Though, I didn't touch some sections such as "Criticisms" (seems fine generally). TheFella03 (talk) 04:23, 25 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

We should distinguish US oil production and world oil production

As of 2024, it has been recognized that conventional oil production has peaked around 2006.

Is it for the world or the US? Because it smells a little US defaultism here. Kristo Mefisto (talk) 12:45, 26 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

It's world. TheFella03 (talk) 21:07, 30 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Demand - oil used to make plastic

The section on Demand for oil does not mention plastic, which currently uses around 5% (? - estimates vary) of oil production. Maybe the article needs to include the uncertainty regarding the future demand for oil used to make plastic (eg https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/21419505/oil-gas-price-plastics-peak-climate-change) John a s (talk) 20:51, 3 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]