Peak Oil avoided at Rudd's Summit on the Future

Last week Martin Ferguson, the federal Resources and Energy minister, told the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association conference in Perth,

"With only about a decade of known oil resources remaining at today's production rates, Australia is looking down the barrel of a $25bn trade deficit in petroleum products by 2015".

One might therefore expect this to be a hot topic at the summit, but there is not a hint of it in the discussion papers that will frame the debates.

There are only a couple of people on the delegate list with any known background in the area of future oil availability.
The 10 people who applied to attend from Australia's foremost "peak oil" organisation, ASPO-Aus, were all turned down.

Although it is clear that the Rudd government is very concerned about future oil supplies for Australia, bizarrely, all discussion at the summit will be based on the false assumption of ready future availability.