It is generally thought that the global Peak Oil point will happen between the year 2000 to 2010 and may have already happened.
Australia reached it's peak oil point at about the year 2000.
The Point? It becomes more and more expensive to extract the oil. 100 years ago it took 1 barrel of oil to get 100. Now they get only 10 to 20. Less in some cases.
The term used when this is discussed is EROEI, meaning
Energy Returned on Energy Invested.
With Shale Oil the ratio is about 5:1. Up to 5 units of energy are obtained for every one unit spent.
Tar Sands are about 3:1 (maybe a little lower). They have to use 1 unit to get 3. Or 1 barrel of oil to get 3 barrels.
Most new Oil discoveries are up to 10:1.
Below are the countries in red that have reached Peak Oil already.
<---- Cheap Oil | Expensive Oil ---->
Australia imports over $35 billion in crude (oil an petroleum) per year. Link
Peak Oil definition:
Peak oil is the point at which we can no longer increase the amount of crude oil we extract from a single oil province or group of provinces. The term Peak Oil is usually used when referring to the entire global production of conventional oil. Peak Oil typically happens when an oil province has extracted roughly ½ of all the oil that is ever going to be extracted from that province - it is not when the oil runs out. After this, petroleum production goes into irreversible decline and thus prices increase.
Peak Oil relates to these other pages.