Have oil supplies peaked globally?

It looks as if the ongoing tug-of-war between the oil bulls and bears is heating up.

That provides the big question as to whether global oil supplies have peaked, or if there are additional reserves hidden away in the Earth’s recesses that have only begun to be tapped.

This debate has lately been engaged in by such leading energy experts as geology pundit Daniel Yergin, who professes oil supplies to be available well past the end of this century. On the other hand, hedge fund proprietor T. Boone Pickens, a hands-on oil patch veteran, claims that the 2-to-1 ratio of depletion over new reserves, since 1970, is bringing an ultimate shortage crisis to a head.

This time, however, the protagonists of oil abundance are Saudi Arabian state-owned Saudi Aramco, the world’s largest oil production company. Its chief executive, Abdullah S. Jum’ah, claimed that the world contains more than a century’s worth of crude oil, at present production rates.

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