Whistleblower finds key IEA oil figures were distorted by US pressure
The world is much closer to running out of oil than official estimates admit, according to a whistleblower at the
International Energy Agency who claims it has been deliberately underplaying a looming shortage for fear of
triggering panic buying.
The senior official claims the US has played an influential role in encouraging the watchdog to underplay the rate of
decline from existing oil fields while overplaying the chances of finding new reserves.
The allegations raise serious questions about the accuracy of the organisation's latest World Energy Outlook on oil
demand and supply to be published tomorrow -- which is used by the British and many other governments to help guide
their wider energy and climate change policies. In particular they question the prediction in the last World Economic
Outlook, believed to be repeated again this year, that oil production can be raised from its current level of 83 mm
bpd to 105 mm barrels.
External critics have frequently argued that this cannot be substantiated by firm evidence and say the world has
already passed its peak in oil production. Now the "peak oil" theory is gaining support at the heart of the global
energy establishment.
"The IEA in 2005 was predicting oil supplies could rise as high as 120 mm bpd by 2030 although it was forced to
reduce this gradually to 116 mm and then 105 mm last year," said the IEA source. "The 120 mm figure always was
nonsense but even today's number is much higher than can be justified and the IEA knows this."
"Many inside the organisation believe that maintaining oil supplies at even 90 mm to 95 mm bpd would be impossible
but there are fears that panic could spread on the financial markets if the figures were brought down further. And
the Americans fear the end of oil supremacy because it would threaten their power over access to oil resources," he
added.
A second senior IEA source said a key rule at the organisation was that it was "imperative not to anger the
Americans" but the fact was that there was not as much oil in the world as had been admitted.
"We have [already] entered the 'peak oil' zone. I think that the situation is really bad," he added.
The IEA acknowledges the importance of its own figures, boasting on its website: "The IEA governments and industry
from all across the globe have come to rely on the World Energy Outlook to provide a consistent basis on which they
can formulate policies and design business plans."
The British government, among others, always uses the IEA statistics rather than any of its own to argue that there
is little threat to long-term oil supplies. The IEA said that peak oil critics had often wrongly questioned the
accuracy of its figures.
John Hemming, the MP who chairs the all-party parliamentary group on peak oil and gas, said the revelations confirmed
his suspicions that the IEA underplayed how quickly the world was running out and this had profound implications for
British government energy policy. He said he had also been contacted by some IEA officials unhappy with its lack of
independent scepticism over predictions.
"Reliance on IEA reports has been used to justify claims that oil and gas supplies will not peak before 2030. It is
clear now that this will not be the case and the IEA figures cannot be relied on," said Hemming.
"This all gives an importance to the Copenhagen [climate change] talks and an urgent need for the UK to move faster
towards a more sustainable [lower carbon] economy if it is to avoid severe economic dislocation," he added.
The IEA was established in 1974 after the oil crisis in an attempt to try to safeguard energy supplies to the west.
The World Energy Outlook is produced annually under the control of the IEA's chief economist, Fatih Birol, who has
defended the projections from earlier outside attack. Peak oil critics have often questioned the IEA figures.
But now IEA sources say that Birol has increasingly been facing questions about the figures inside the organisation.
Matt Simmons, a respected oil industry expert, has long questioned the decline rates and oil statistics provided by
Saudi Arabia on its own fields. He has raised questions about whether peak oil is much closer than many have
accepted.
A report by the UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC) earlier said worldwide production of conventionally extracted oil
could "peak" and go into terminal decline before 2020 -- but that the government was not facing up to the risk. Steve
Sorrell, chief author of the report, said forecasts suggesting oil production will not peak before 2030 were "at best
optimistic and at worst implausible".
But as far back as 2004 there have been people making similar warnings. Colin Campbell, a former executive with Total
of France told a conference: "If the real [oil reserve] figures were to come out there would be panic on the stock
markets... in the end that would suit no one."