The Myth of the Oil Crisis: Overcoming the Challenges of Depletion, Geopolitics, and Global Warming by Robin M. Mills

Synopsis

With oil around $100 a barrel, drivers wince whenever they pull into the gas station and businesses watch their bottom lines shrink. Watch out, say doomsayers, it will only get worse as oil dries up. It's a plausible argument, especially considering the rate at which countries like China and India are now sucking up oil. Even more troubling, the world's largest oil fields sit in geopolitical hotspots like Iran and Iraq. Some believe their nations need to secure remaining supplies using military force, while others consider dwindling supplies a blessing that will help solve the problem of global warming. But wait—is it really the end of oil? Absolutely not, says geologist, economist, and industry-insider Robin Mills.

There is no other book by an industry insider that effectively counters the peak oil theory by showing where and how oil will be found in the future. There also is no other book by an insider that lays out an environmentally and geopolitically responsible path for the petroleum industry and its customers. The Myth of the Oil Crisis, written in a lively style but with scientific rigor, is thus a uniquely useful resource for business leaders, policymakers, petroleum industry professionals, environmentalists, and anyone else who consumes oil. Best of all, it offers an abundance of one commodity now in short supply: hope for the future.

An oil industry insider debunks myths surrounding the black gold and shows that we have plenty of oil left in the ground to keep homes warm and cars running for decades to come.

According to Mills, many ideas about petroleum depletion and its consequences are not just grossly overstatedbut plain wrong. Calmly and persuasively, he argues: The supply of oil and gas is much larger than imagined by the pessimists.

-Seeking political, military, or commercial control of oil supplies is unnecessary, self-defeating, and exorbitantly expensive.

-Oil is merely one convenient source of energy.

-Opportunities exist to decrease the global consumption of oil radically while maintaining a healthy economy.

-The environmental impact of fossil fuels is the most serious problem the world faces today. But a portfolio of solutions can solve it.

Robert Eagan - Library Journal

Geologist, economist, and petroleum industry insider Mills makes an intelligent case for oil's continuing role as a major, growing energy source. A Herculean task, one would think, given public sentiment on the matter. Mills manages it by first neatly dividing opposing viewpoints into five camps: geologists (those who espouse peak oil theory), economists (the markets will work it out), militarists (use power to secure energy supplies), environmentalists (fossil fuels: no), and neo-Luddites (fossil fuels, consumption, and materialism: no). He then conquers their positions with lively, exhaustively sourced arguments to say that there may be more conventional oil than reported, "colossal" unconventional sources, and plentiful energy substitutes. Mills shows deep understanding of the complexity of the issue, and while promising no easy fixes, he is yet hopeful: "gloomy predictions do not resemble the real world and take no account of human ingenuity." For more advanced readers.

Biography

ROBIN M. MILLS is an oil industry professional with a background in both geology and economics. Currently, he is Petroleum Economics Manager for the Emirates National Oil Company in Dubai. Previously, he worked for Shell. Mills, who speaks Farsi and Arabic, is a member of the International Association for Energy Economics and Association of International Petroleum Negotiators. He holds a Master's Degree in Geological Sciences from Cambridge University.