Production peak 'will push oil prices higher'

8 October 2009

The price of crude oil looks set to rise in the future as the fuel becomes increasingly difficult and expensive to find, a new report has warned.

Analysts at the UK's Energy Research Council (UKERC) claimed that global production could peak within the next decade, sparking a surge in prices as supplies begin to run out.

Despite recent estimations suggesting the peak will not be reached until after 2030, the group said such forecasts were "at best optimistic and at worst implausible".

Indeed, even with major new discoveries such as those recently announced in the Gulf of Mexico, peak production will only be postponed by a matter of weeks or even days, it added.

Robert Gross, head of technology and policy assessment at the UKERC, said the age of easy and cheap access to oil will come to an end as the fuel becomes increasingly difficult to find.

The outlook could be bad news for home heating oil customers, with a rise in crude prices likely to have a knock-on effect on the cost of the domestic fuel.

Last summer, the market reached record levels of nearly $150 (€101.58) a barrel, before falling as a result of the economic crisis.

Click here for a home heating oil quote.