King Hubbert

About this Talk

The clip appears to be an extract from “Health Facilities and the Energy Crisis: A Conversation with M. King Hubbert.”, Chicago: American Hospital Association, 1976. Available at Southwest Minnesota State University library, Media VT98.

In the video he predicts Peal Oil production to occur around 1995 at 40 billion barrels per year assuming that OPEC does not succeed in moving the curve. OPEC did move the curve and the peak was about 27 billion barrels and probably occurred between 2005 and 2010. We will only know the exact point in time long after is has happened.

Monthly data shows that there have been three “peaks” during the last few years. This chart shows the monthly data up to November 2009 and is from the The Oil Drum.

About M. King Hubbert

Marion King Hubbert (October 5, 1903 – October 11, 1989) was a geoscientist who worked at the Shell research lab in Houston, Texas. He made several important contributions to geology, geophysics, and petroleum geology, most notably the Hubbert curve and Hubbert peak theory (a basic component of Peak oil), with important political ramifications. He was often referred to as “M. King Hubbert” or “King Hubbert”.

Hubbert was born in San Saba, Texas. He attended the University of Chicago, where he received his B.S. in 1926, his M.S. in 1928, and his Ph.D in 1937, studying geology, mathematics, and physics. He worked as an assistant geologist for the Amerada Petroleum Company for two years while pursuing his Ph.D., additionally teaching geophysics at Columbia University. He also served as a senior analyst at the Board of Economic Warfare. He joined the Shell Oil Company in 1943, retiring from that firm in 1964. After he retired from Shell, he became a senior research geophysicist for the United States Geological Survey until his retirement in 1976. He also held positions as a professor of geology and geophysics at Stanford University from 1963 to 1968, and as a professor at UC Berkeley from 1973 to 1976.

His classic paper that is the foundation of the theory of Peak Oil, Nuclear Energy and the Fossil Fuels was published in 1956 and has proved to be very accurate.

Hubbert was also an avid Technocrat. He co-founded Technocracy Incorporated with Howard Scott and contributed significantly to the Technocracy Study Course, the precedent document of that group which advocates a Non-market economics form of Energy accounting, in contrast to the current Price System method. Hubbert was a member of the Board of Governors, and served as Secretary of education to that organization.