2007 Press Releases
"Ireland in the Second Half of the Age of Oil" - Public Lecture at UCC, 21 February
The Second Half of the Age of Oil is upon us according to Dr Colin
Campbell, who will deliver the next lecture in the Faculty of Science
Public Lecture Series at UCC on Wednesday, 21 February.
Oil and Gas are natural resources formed in the geological past, which
means that they are subject to depletion. Furthermore, since they have
to be found before they can be produced, the pattern of discovery is
mirrored in production after a time lapse. World oil discovery reached
a peak in the 1960s and consumption exceeded discovery in 1981. The gap
is widening such that in 2005 about one barrel of oil was found for
every six consumed.
"It is clear, therefore, that the end of the First Half of the Age of
Oil is close" said Dr Campbell. It lasted 150 years and saw the rapid
expansion of industry, transport, trade and agriculture, allowing the
population to expand six-fold in parallel.
The Second Half of the Age of Oil, which now dawns, will be marked by
the decline of oil, followed by gas, and all that depend on these
energy sources which have transformed the world. The transition
threatens to be a time of great international tension.
Ireland will not be immune to these events but is blessed with green
fields and a small population making it better placed than many other
countries. Even so, urgent steps are needed to prepare. They include
measures to improve energy efficiency and reduce waste, and the
development of renewable energy from tide, sun, wave, wind and
bio-fuels, not to omit the nuclear option, difficult as it is.
Electricity is particularly at risk. Fifty percent is generated from
gas, much imported from Britain, which itself now becomes an importer
from ever more distant sources on a steeply rising trend.
Colin Campbell was born in 1931 and grew up in England. He read geology
at Oxford, writing a DPhil thesis on the Lower Palaeozoic rocks of
Connemara. He joined the oil industry in 1958 as a field geologist.
Working for major international oil companies as well as independents,
his career took him to Borneo, Trinidad, Colombia, Australia, New
Guinea, United States, Ecuador, United Kingdom, Ireland and Norway,
being also responsible for ventures in Holland, Turkey and Portugal and
evaluations in many other places. He was much involved in the offshore
exploration of Ireland in the 1970s. His last assignment prior to a
form retirement in 1990 was as Executive Vice-President of Petrofina in
Norway.
His interest in depletion goes back to 1969, when he found himself a
member of an Amoco study-group in Chicago making a world oil
evaluation, which even then demonstrated the limits and declining
opportunities. Later, he prompted research with the Norwegian
Government on the same topic, writing up the results as The Golden
Century of Oil (Kluwer Academic 1991). This was followed by four other
books, numerous scientific and other publications.
In 2001, he founded the Association for the Study of Peak Oil (ASPO) as
a network of concerned scientists in European Universities and
Government Departments. He is a Director of ASPO-IRELAND which is
responsible for organising the 2007 Conference and acting as
Secretariat for what becomes an important international organisation.
He and his wife, Bobbins, have lived in Ballydehob, West Cork, since 1999.
The lecture takes place at UCC's Boole Lecture Theatre 4 at 8pm on
Wednesday, 21 February. The highly popular lecture series,
organised by Professor William Reville of the Faculty of Science, UCC,
continues weekly until 28 March 2007. Admission to the lecture is
free, and as always, members of the public are invited to attend.
381MMcS
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