Op-Ed by Lance Meredith, Chatham-Kent Oil Age Planning Group. Appeared in Chatham Daily News, 24 March 2006. Featured in the April issue of the Relocalize newsletter.
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Sir,

The price at the pump is increasingly affected by ever rising demand for oil while supply from conventional oil fields has plateaued and is beginning to fall. Like any desired commodity, when there is less of it available, the price goes up. Most of the world's largest oil fields are in decline. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iran, Venezuela, China, and Mexico's largest fields are all in decline, with no super giant fields (fields that produce more than 500,000 barrels a day) to replace them being discovered. All in all, 56 of the world's 65 largest oil producing countries have peaked in supply and are now, or soon will be, in decline.

Other factors affecting the price of oil include: a shortage of petroleum engineers and crews, onshore and offshore drilling rigs that are too old and too few, areas that are declared off limits to drilling for environmental reasons, extreme costs for difficult to reach areas like deep water wells, and war in and around production fields. One of the reasons why oil hasn't hit $100 a barrel is the lack of demand from underdeveloped countries. They can no longer afford to purchase it in previous amounts and are therefore no longer competing nearly as much for this resource.

Unfortunately, there are no substitutes for oil that provide the same bang for the buck, and no combination of alternatives will replace all that oil does for us. 95% of all transportation is oil driven, almost a half a million products are created with oil, and for every one calorie of food we consume, an average of 10 calories of fossil fuels have gone into creating it.

The best thing citizens can do to reduce the hit on their wallets are various lifestyle changes, including: driving a vehicle with a smaller engine, making fewer trips, living closer to their job, school, and shopping centres, car pooling, using public transportation, walking and cycling more, making sure that their vehicles are tuned up and the tire pressure is within specifications, buying from their local businesses, and eating more locally grown/raised foods.

Oil is still cheap--at 65 dollars a barrel, it works out to about 10 cents a cup (quarter litre) - try and buy water, pop, milk, or juice for that price. Further, a cup of oil contains the equavalent of about 30 hours of hard physical labour - you could never hire someone for that rate of pay! The bottom line is, don't blame the retailer. We're all in this boat together and if we're going to cope with this energy predicament, as a community we will have to draw upon our own creativity, resources and each other.

Lance Meredith
Coordinator, Chatham-Kent Oil Age Planning Group
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