Despite record profits oil companies are not reinvesting in their own industry. Most oil rigs out there searching for the last vestige of oil are now at least 25 years old and technically at the end of their economic lives and with little or no investment in new refineries worldwide perhaps the oil companies know something that many if not most people still choose to ignore; the beginning of the end of the age of oil.

High oil prices - get used to them and all the other ramifications of our almost complete dependence on the stuff. All too late we have realised we have used it up without any sense of its true value. Bottled water and fizzy drinks still cost more.

Oil production will soon enter its permanent and inevitable and unstoppable terminal decline within the next few years.

There is only one answer to set up the economic environment and manage the boom & bust economic chaos of the "bumpy plateau"... an international oil sharing agreement.

http://oildepletionprotocol.org/

Decline is going to happen anyway. Wouldn't it be wise to have a plan to manage it?

Many thanks to all who've made comment on my article. I agree that, in many respects, it's tinkering around the edges but I wrote it in response to the tinkering that Rudd and Nelson started arguing about - the 5 cents a litre excise cut proposed by Nelson which was poo-pooed by the media until they found that the public actually think that even a 5 cent reduction is better than no reduction.
I'm not sure what Remco means about the charade of the Kwinana refinery's age - when a five billion dollar plant is new, borrowings can be a significant annual expense against profits. But, after the loans have been repaid, profits are generally at their highest level which, combined with BP being an oil producer, is making that company and its WA refinery VERY profitable.
I could have written articles about the myth of peak oil, what are our alternatives to fossil fuels, what should governments really do to make us energy efficient, and so on. But, as a former state MP, I believe there are times that you need to take the wind out of the sails of governments or oppositions who are sailing up the wrong river: a small excise cut is a waste of time and Fuelwatch is anti-competitive and only of marginal value as it currently operates. So I thought I'd try to get the media here in WA to move on to more serious issues. One can only try!

It seems to me that car companies have already decided what to do
and nearly all major manufacturers are quickly moving towards
electric plug-ins.

The latest Economist contains interesting information about where
its all heading.

New battery technology is going ahead in leaps and bounds,
batteries that can charge and discharge in 10 seconds for instance.

Google are already experimenting with photovoltaic car parks.
Batteries recharge whilst people are at work.

Recharge your batteries from home at 3am, you are using power
that would otherwise be wasted.

Soooo, that is my prediction, electric plug-ins is where its all
going fast, that will help take the pressure off oil as well
as CO2 emmissions. If the Govt is going to throw money around
at car manufacturers, that is where they should be doing it,
as it looks like its the future.

Bernie Masters: "I could have written articles about the myth of peak oil."

Indeed you could have, Bernie. I don't think peak oil is a myth, but nevertheless it should be possible to put together a fairly strong argument saying it is over-hyped. If you did that well, supporting it with a few good links, it would be a first for OLO. Why not give it a go? Certainly it would be more relevant than loudly banging on about a 5c fuel tax.

Also, I notice that no-one else has praised the "Fuel Watch should be a maximum" idea. I don't agree that it is anti-competitive. But nonetheless making it a maximum seems like a good thing to do.

Interesting comments in these posts.

Yabby is right, electric cars, if we still have cars at all will be the
way of the future.

Oil companies have avoided building refineries for years.
Would you if you knew what is likely to happen to your feedstock ?

The politicians are staring at the on coming headlamp and simply do not
know what to do. Whichever party bights the bullet and takes the
people into its confidence and tells them whats what and lays it out
for the people to see will probably be ridiculed for a while until it
sinks in that it is all real.

Then they will get support if the government in the meantime has
planned a rationing system and presses for the adoption of the
Transition Protocol.
There are a number of other steps that must be made also, like
qudrupling and duplicating certain rail lines and stopping interstate
road transport and road expenditure.

Hows that for a policy to lose an election ?