The Peak of World Oil Production Have We Passed the Point of Peak Oil?

Due to the global economy strong dependence on fossil resources, the critical question is how long the fossil resources and in particular petroleum, can provide the energy growing demand of global economy. Based on US historical experience of petroleum production and also Hubbert peak theory, energy institutions and experts tried to estimate and predict the time of world maximum petroleum production. These estimations according to some factors such as the growth of energy demand in the world, the amount of conventional and unconventional reservoirs, petroleum extraction technologies, the increasing trend of world petroleum price, etc. In addition to review the historical concept of peak oil, this paper tries to analyze different opinions and reports in this field, compare them and examine their strengths and weaknesses.Finally, this paper examines the impacts of main factors on peak oil and the solutions to postpone it and also investigate the actions against peak oil consequences on the global economy during its occurring.