Then there is the looming problem of Peak Oil - the stage when demand outstrips the world's capacity to produce it.


In September, a Macquarie Bank report found we had already hit that wall. Report author Iain Reid says production capacity will peak at 89.6 million barrels a day this year. By 2012, demand will exceed this.

"Capacity has pretty much peaked in the sense that declines equal new resources," he told news agency Reuters.

"Adding sufficient productive capacity on time is nearly impossible."

The problem with evaluating Peak Oil is the wide divergence of opinions about supply and production.