ODAC staff

Welcome to the last ODAC Newsletter, the final news roundup from the Oil Depletion Analysis Centre…2012 saw US oil production grow to its highest level in 15 years, largely because of surging tight oil production by fracking, and many pundits such as Ed Morse of Citi are claiming “peak oil is dead”. So has ODAC been worrying its silly little head entirely unnecessarily for the last five years, and could all our energy troubles soon be over? We continue to think not…

The announcement on Thursday that the government is lifting its moratorium on fracking held all the surprise of turkey on the Christmas menu. The decision, which allows the resumption of test drilling by Cuadrilla in Lancashire and opens the way to fracking across the UK, was inevitable following the government’s gas generation U-turn last week…

 If last week’s energy bill announcement was about building the low carbon power system of the future, this week’s gas strategy and autumn statement felt like a blast from the past.

Thursday saw the long awaited UK energy bill finally presented to parliament. Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Davey described the bill as "good for the British economy, good for consumers, and good for the planet". So what is it good for?…

A week of brutal bombing and rocket fire between Israel and Hamas pushed oil prices back to around $110/barrel this week. A fragile ceasefire is now in place, but there is much concern that it will be short-lived. Oil market news may all be about US production, but it is primarily the politics and geopolitics of the Middle East that is still driving global oil prices.

The US as the new Saudi Arabia, energy insecurity for most of the rest of the world, and climate chaos for everyone – such were the headline points of the latest World Energy Outlook from the International Energy Agency.