This is the beta version of the Peak oil Timeline, a resource for journalists, students, and anyone lse who wants to understand the chronology of peak oil. Soon we will be accepting suggestions of additions to the timeline.

Peak Oil Timeline:
19th Century to the present
 
1832-39 (year unknown): First electric automobile invented by Robert Anderson, of Scotland. Electric cars (developed along with steam-powered vehicles) would eventually  outsell all others until near the end of the century, given its miniscule market, when the invention of the internal combustion engine found a key use for all that cheap U.S. oil.
 
1848: World’s first oil wells are drilled in Asia, on the Aspheron Peninsula northeast of Baku.
http://bakerinstitute.org/Pubs/studies/gppca/gppca.html#Introduction
 
1849: Canadian Abraham Gesner develops process for distilling kerosene from oil (first from shale) and invents the kerosene lantern. Demand for whale oil decreases significantly.
http://www.cheminst.ca/ncw/articles/1999_gesner1_e.htm
 
1853: Kerosene is first introduced in Germany, creating European demand for the product.
 
1854: The Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company (later called Seneca Oil Co.) founded in the U.S., the world’s first, after Edwin L. Drake’s recent discovery of oil in Pennsylvania. The company’s original idea was to develop oil floating on the water near Titusville, Penn.
 
Brief history of U.S. oil production in the early years:
http://college.hmco.com/history/readerscomp/rcah/html/ah_066100_oilindustry.htm
 
1859:  Drake drills oil well in Titusville – using a series of attached pipes to reach further underground (69 ft.) than previous attempts – launching the modern petroleum industry. The refining of kerosene is the main thrust at this point.
http://www.priweb.org/ed/pgws/history/pennsylvania/pennsylvania.html
 
1864: Austrian engineer Siegfried Marcus builds car with one-cylinder engine, able to go 10 m.p.h. for short distances. His invention is considered to be the forerunner of the modern internal-combustion-powered automobile.
http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aacarssteama.htm
 
1867: Pennsylvania entrepreneur John D. Rockefeller forms oil refining partnership with S.V. Harkness and Henry Flagler, which would become known as Standard Oil.
 
1875: California’s first successful oil well drilled in Pico Canyon
 
1878: Electric light bulb invented by Thomas Edison eliminates demand for kerosene, and the oil industry enters a recession.
http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bllight.htm
 
1882: Standard Oil Trust is created, allowing Rockefeller to align his interests vertically and horizontally: controlling prices, dodging out-of-state taxes and limiting pesky competition.
http://www.buyandhold.com/bh/en/education/history/2000/standard_oil1.html
 
1886: Gasoline-powered automobiles introduced in Europe by Karl Benz and Wilhelm Daimler, creating additional markets for U.S. oil. Prior to the automobile, gasoline was a cheap solvent produced as a byproduct of kerosene distillation.
http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aacarsgasa.htm
 
1890: Daimler founds Daimler Motoren-Gesellschaft to produce copies of his internal combustion engine for sale.
 
1892: California’s first oil well located in Los Angeles, followed by 25,000 more wells and 200 other oil companies in the area.
 
1893: Charles and Frank Duryea become America’s first manufacturers of gasoline-powered commercial cars.
 
1894: Benz Velo is first to mass-produce cars, building 134 identical Velos.
 
1895: Pure Oil Company Ltd. created, giving Standard its first real competition.
 
1900: Standard Oil purchases the Pacific Coast Oil Company (California) and in 1906 incorporates all its western operations into Pacific Oil, now Chevron.
 
1901: Massive oil fields discovered in Beaumont, Texas (Jan. 10). A single well on “Spindletop� Hill produces 100,000 barrels of oil per day. Abundant and cheap oil is now used for ships, trains and automobiles, replacing steam.
http://www.texas-ec.org/tcp/101oil.html
 
Wilhelm Maybach designs the Mercedes automobile.
 
The 1901 Curved Dash Oldsmobile, built by Ransome Eli Olds in Michigan, becomes the first car to be mass-produced in the United States. Olds is credited as the inventor of the assembly line.
http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aacarsassemblya.htm
 
1903: U.S. entrepreneur Henry Ford founds Ford Motor Co.
 
1908: Ford launches the Model T, making 15 million of them by 1927.
 
1909: U.S. oil production more than equals that of the rest of the world.
 
1911: Standard Trust ordered by the Supreme Court to split into 11 separate companies. Supremes charge the trust with operating to monopolize and restrain trade.
 
1912: Henri Deterding, founder of Royal Dutch Shell Group, moves into the California oil fields via his American Gasoline Co. (Shell Company of California after 1914).
 
1913: Ford improves upon Olds’ assembly line, adding conveyor belts and reducing assembly time to about 90 minutes per Model T.
 
1919: American Petroleum Institute, a lobbying group for big oil, founded.
http://api-ec.api.org/newsplashpage/index.cfm
 
1920: Roughly 9 million gas-burning vehicles now in the U.S.
 
1921: Oil discovered at Signal Hill near Long Beach, California.
 
1930: U.S. oil discovery peaks, led by oil fields in Texas (most notably a 5 billion barrel discovery near Tyler, Texas).
 
1939: World War II erupts. U.S. provides oil, via submarine, to the allies prior to official entry into the war.
 
1942: U.S. enters World War II after Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor (in retaliation for an oil embargo against Japan).
http://www.colorado.edu/conflict/peace/example/geor7269.htm
 
Military research and funding leads to new uses for petroleum, including synthetic rubber and better airplane fuel. The U.S. uses roughly 6 billion barrels of oil for its part in the war.
 
1955: Austrian oil production peaks.
 
1967: Oil discovered in Alaska’s North Slope.
 
1968: German oil production peaks.
 
1969: The U.K. discovers massive oil fields in the North Sea.
 
1971: U.S. oil production peaks.
 
1973: OPEC oil embargo.
 
1977: Indonesian oil production peaks.
 
1979: The Shah of Iran, friendly to Western energy interests, is ousted by popular Islamist revolution.
 
U.S. President Jimmy Carter issues the Carter Doctrine, stating that the U.S. would use military force to maintain access to Middle Eastern oil reserves.
 
1985: OPEC spare production capacity at 25% of global demand.
 
1990: OPEC spare production capacity at 8% of global demand.
 
Jan. 1991: U.S. taps into its Strategic Petroleum Reserve during the first Gulf War in Iraq.
 
1998: World population reaches 6 billion.
 
1999
 
ARCO chairman Mike Bowlin publicly acknowledges the beginning of “the last days of the age of oil.�
 
Oil production in the U.K. peaks.
 
2000
 
Oil production in Australia and Oman peaks.
 
13 discoveries of oil fields with more than 500 million barrels.
 
Natural gas costs about $2 per 1000 cubic feet (mcf).
 
Neoconservative think-tank Project for the New American Century (PNAC) publishes “Rebuilding America’s Defenses,� which calls for a permanent role for the U.S. in the Persian Gulf region.
 
Nov.
Iraq announces that it will no longer accept U.S. dollars for its oil, favoring the Euro instead. This move prompts similar actions by oil producers Iran, Venezuela, Malaysia and Russia.
 
2001
 
Oil production in Norway peaks.
 
Six discoveries of oil fields with more than 500 million barrels.
 
OPEC spare production capacity at 2% of global demand.
 
March
Report of the Cheney Energy Task Force contains maps of Iraqi oilfields, pipelines, refineries and terminals, and charts detailing Iraqi energy projects.
 
Sept. 11
Terrorist attacks demolish the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan and part of the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., with three hijacked commercial jets (a fourth crashes in rural Pennsylvania). U.S. government responds with pre-planned military action in Afghanistan, now armed with public support (U.S. oil companies and government officials had tried unsuccessfully to put a gas and oil pipeline from the Caspian Sea region through Afghanistan, beginning with the Clinton Administration. Afghanistan also has a lucrative heroin industry.).
 
2002
 
Two discoveries of oil fields with more than 500 million barrels.
 
U.S. imports 15% of its natural gas from Canada.
 
2003
 
Zero discoveries of oil fields with more than 500 million barrels.
 
March
U.S. invades Iraq under false pretext that the sovereign nation possesses weapons of mass destruction. Not coincidentally, Iraq has the second-largest proven oil reserves in the world.
 
Oct. 23
The Economist publishes “The End of the Oil Age,� promoting research into alternative energy resources.
http://www.economist.com/opinion/displayStory.cfm?story_id=2155717
 
2004
 
Jan. 9
Royal Dutch Shell Group admits that it has overstated its proven reserves by as much as 20 percent, shocking energy markets and casting doubt over the accuracy of oil companies’ official numbers.
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/01/12/1073877763409.html?oneclick=true
 
Shell press release, awkwardly assuring investors that there’s nothing to worry about:
http://www.shell.com/home/Framework?siteId=media-en&FC2=/media-en/html/iwgen/news_and_library/press_releases/2004/zzz_lhn.html&FC3=/media-en/html/iwgen/news_and_library/press_releases/2004/09012004_0000_mediarelease.html
 
Jan. 13
LUKoil (Russian oil company) vice president Leonid Fedun announces his expectation that Russian oil and gas production will peak in 2007.
http://www.rbcnews.com/free/20040113182855.shtml
 
Jan. 20
Two independent studies conclude that blackouts, such as the one that affected New York and much of the northeast, are likely in 2004. Conclusions of the studies published in Nature.
http://www.energybulletin.net/139.html
 
March 31-April 1
Three U.S.-based fertilizer plants close, all citing higher natural gas costs.
http://www.kurzweilai.net/mindx/frame.html?main=/mindx/show_thread.php?rootID%3D24595
 
April 10
L.A. Times publishes article exposing the empty promise of hydrogen-based energy.
http://www.energybulletin.net/173.html
 
April 18
Saudi ambassador to the U.S. promises lower gas prices ahead of Bush’s presidential re-election bid.
http://www.energybulletin.net/103.html
 
April 19
Shell cuts oil reserve estimates yet again, shaving $400 million from profit forecasts.
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,8903-1080146,00.html
 
May 3
Oil and Gas Journal predicts global oil production peak in 2006-07, based on simulations.
http://www.energybulletin.net/147.html
 
May 7
The New York Times publishes piece about peak oil by columnist Paul Krugman.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/07/opinion/07KRUG.html?ex=1119412800&en=932c3fb52540af98&ei=5070&oref=login
 
May 10
USA Today publishes story questioning the reliability of Saudi Arabian oil. Article looks at political instability and doubtful reserves numbers.
http://www.usatoday.com/money/world/2004-05-10-saudi-oil_x.htm
 
May 13
CBS MarketWatch.com publishes sobering warning of peak oil, and a global economic crisis by 2007 or so, by economist Paul Erdman.
http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story.asp?guid=%7B7EDEF541-AA0B-4C69-8FAE-1592F08D7D82%7D&siteid=google&dist=google&cbsReferrer=www.energybulletin.net
  
May 17
J. Marshall Adkins, an analyst with investment bank Raymond James, cites a 4.2% decline in U.S. natural gas production for Q1, despite increased capacity.
http://www.energybulletin.net/352.html
 
May 19
National Geographic publishes cover story about peak oil.
http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0406/feature5/
 
May 24
Crude oil futures rise on concerns that Saudi Arabia will be unable to meet rising demand.
http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000006&sid=a0PK4HbnUyRE&refer=home
 
May 30
Terrorist attacks in the Saudi oil center of Al-Khobar, just ahead of OPEC meeting, leave at least 22 people dead.
http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/05/30/saudi.shooting/
 
June 2
OPEC holds its 131st meeting to review oil markets in Beirut and Lebanon. OPEC decides to increase its production quota to 25.5 million barrels per day effective July 1, 2004, and to 26.0 million barrels per day effective August 1, 2004.
 
June 3
Democracy Now with Amy Goodman leads off with peak oil story.
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/06/03/142249
(transcript and audio stream)
 
June 4
Iraq receives $800 million from Anglo-American sources to boost oil production.
 
Libya resumes oil trade with the U.S.
 
June 7
BBC News publishes relatively in-depth story about peak oil.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3777413.stm
 
June 8
Mother Jones interviews Paul Roberts, author of “The End of Oil�
http://www.motherjones.com/cgi-bin/print_article.pl?url=http://www.motherjones.com/news/qa/2004/05/paul_rob_qa.html
 
June 12
Central African leaders open $3.7 billion oil pipeline to the Atlantic.
http://www.forbes.com/home/feeds/ap/2004/06/12/ap1410228.html
 
June 23
Australian government encourages oil exploration along the environmentally sensitive Great Barrier Reef.
http://www.energybulletin.net/781.html
 
June 24
Supreme Court (yep, the same folks who “selected� Bush as president) rule that VP Cheney does not have to disclose the details of his early-2000 energy task force.
 
June 28
$20 billion in Iraqi oil revenues go “missing.�
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/iraq/story/0,12956,1248753,00.html
 
2005
 
January 2
Presentation by Swedish truck manufacturer Scania includes the peak oil prediction from ASPO, and talks about the need to reduce fuel consumption and look at biofuels. This may be the first acknowledgement of peak oil from a big auto company.   
http://www.swedishtrade.se/japan/docfile/31791_Scania.pdf
(pp. 24-30)
 
January 3
U.S. News and World Report publishes stark article about oil depletion and growing worldwide demand.
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/biztech/articles/050110/10oil.htm
 
January 8
India signs 25-year LNG (liquefied natural gas) trade deal with Iran. Indian importation of Iranian LNG will begin in 2009.
http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=62321
 
January 29
Dr. Robert L. Hirsch, a Senior Energy Program Advisor at SAIC, completes a report for the US DOE (Peaking of World Oil Production: Impacts, Mitigation and Risk Management) that warns the “Optimistic oil production forecasts deserve to be viewed with considerable skepticismâ€?, but the impact of Peak-Oil is described without doubts:  â€œWorld oil peaking represents a problem like none other.  The political, economic, and social stakes are enormous.â€?
 
Report:
www.hilltoplancers.org/stories/hirsch0502.pdf  
 
Executive Summary:
http://www.energybulletin.net/4638.html
 
(Jan. 29)
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Chinese Vice President Zeng Qinghong sign 19 agreements concerning oil, agriculture and technology, including five agreements with the President of the Chinese National Petroleum Corporation.  Venezuela is the world’s fifth-largest producer of oil.
http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news.php?newsno=1487
 
February 3
Japan inks deal with Brazil to facilitate the export of Brazilian biodiesel fuel to the Japanese market.
http://www.brazzilmag.com/content/view/1363/
 
February 12
Cuban President Fidel Castro claims the United States is planning to assassinate Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who takes heed.  Chavez issues a radio statement directed at U.S. President George W. Bush.
http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,12321160%255E1702,00.html
 
“If they kill me, there will be a really guilty party on this planet whose name is the president of the United States, George Bush… If these perverse plans succeed, by the devil’s hand ... forget about oil, Mr. Bush.� -Chavez
 
February 28
IEA draft report
Saving Oil in a Hurry: Measures for Rapid Demand Restraint in Transport
 
March 1
Mexico’s Largest Oil Field in Premature Decline
Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex), Mexico’s state oil monopoly, said it expects production at its Cantarell oil field to begin declining this year, earlier than previously forecast.
http://www.greencarcongress.com/2005/03/mexicorsquos_la.html
 
March 5
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez tells reporters in New Delhi “The age of cheap oil is over,� following recent OPEC meeting.
http://www.energybulletin.net/4643.html
 
March 7-8
International Energy Agency & European Conference of Ministers of Transport host workshop entitled “Managing Oil Demand In Transport.� The main objectives covered in the workshop are as follows:
-Elevate the issue of transport oil demand management among IEA Member countries
-Identify and review cost-effective actions for reducing transport oil demand both on the very short term and medium term (up to 10 years).
http://www.iea.org/Textbase/work/workshopdetail.asp?WS_ID=210
 
March 13
The New York Times does a 2,599 word feature story prompted by the documentary “The End of Suburbia,� which considers the impact of peak oil on Long Island.
http://www.energybulletin.net/4698.html
 
Promotional website for film:
http://www.endofsuburbia.com/
 
March 14
Roscoe Bartlett, Republican Representative from Maryland,
puts a congressional stake in the ground in special session. “Peak oil is in the legislative record perhaps for the first time since [M. King] Hubbert provided testimony,� said Matt Savinar, of www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.com.
 
Links to CSPAN  video and  transcript:
http://www.energybulletin.net/5080.html
 
March 16
Oil hits record above $56
Sharper-than-expected drop in gasoline and heating oil inventories sends energy prices soaring: All-time high price (not in inflation-adjusted dollars, but getting close to $73 in early 80s).
 
The EIA also raised its forecast for 2005 global oil demand to 84.3 million barrels a day and said the growth in demand, especially in China and the U.S., is responsible for the current high prices.
In a news conference Wednesday, President Bush said he was "concerned about the price of energy" and its dampening effect on the economy.
“Demand is outracing supply and supplies are getting tight,� Bush said.
On the heels of Bush's statements, the Senate voted, 51 to 49, to open up the possibility of drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) in northeastern Alaska. http://money.cnn.com/2005/03/16/markets/oil/
March 24
The advance briefing of the report titled “Saving Oil in a Hurry: Measures for Rapid Demand Restraint in Transport�, International Energy Agency (IEA) calls for emergency readiness to dramatically reduce automobile use in case of serious loss of oil supply or very large price increases. The report says that draconian measures may be necessary, including police enforcement of driving bans.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/655B03B0-32C2-4BF7-A3E8-F7EFD8144333.htm
 
April 1
Investment bank Goldman Sachs sees oil spiking to $105; analyst says lower prices will only return when consumption is meaningfully reduced.
http://money.cnn.com/2005/03/31/news/international/goldman_oil.reut/
 
April 8
SF Chronicle Business Columnist David Lazarus connects ChevronTexaco acquisition of Unocal to peak oil.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/04/08/BUGA4C50P61.DTL
 
April 11
Chris Skrebowski, editor of Petroleum Review, issues Megaprojects Update.
Megaproject: Any field development which is going to produce in excess of 100,000 barrels a day – equivalent to about 500 million barrels [reserves].  That is, in effect, the cut-off point where a project will make a useful difference to a company’s or a country’s production.
http://www.globalpublicmedia.com/transcripts/379
 
April 12
Bank of Montreal analyst Don Coxe says that Gharwar, Saudi Arabia’s largest oil field, is in irreversible decline.  He is the first mainstream number-cruncher to publicly say this.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/08B97BCF-7BE6-4F1D-A846-7ACB9B0F8894.htm
 
April 12
The Boston Committee on Foreign Relations publishes Matthew Simmons’ “Twilight in the Desert: The Coming Saudi Oil Shock and the World Economy�
http://www.simmonsco-intl.com/files/Boston%20Committee%20on%20Foreign%20Relations%20B&W.pdf
 
April 13
Robert Ebel, veteran energy analyst and petroleum geologist and chairman of the Energy Program at CSIS (The Center for Strategic and International Studies), based in Washington DC - http://www.csis.org/energy/
 
“Russia won’t be able to expand oil production much more, if at all. are that most fields are in plateau or have declined (most obviously samotlor) plus difficulties with export pipeline capacity and rail/shipping constraints.  Natural gas expansion faces different difficulties, but it may amount to the same thing - not much expansion, if any.â€?
 
Transcript and audio:
http://www.globalpublicmedia.com/interviews/380
 
April 17
London-based ODEC (Oil Depletion Analysis Centre) warns of global oil shortage by 2007.
http://www.sundayherald.com/49065
 
April 19
Congressman Roscoe Bartlett (R, Maryland) discusses global peak oil in a one-hour Special Order speech, scheduled for the third one-hour Special Order on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives; carried live by C-SPAN.
http://www.bartlett.house.gov/latestnews.asp?ARTICLE2900=6060
http://www.bartlett.house.gov/latestnews.asp?ARTICLE2900=6060