Rays of hope for global oil industry

The New York Times has reported 2009 is on track to become the best new oil reserves year since 2000, with new finds totaling 10-billion barrels in the first six months of the year. While still far off the global annual consumption of around 31-billion barrels, and well behind the finds of the 1970’s in Alaska, Mexico and North Sea, and 1990’s in the Kaspian Sea, the successes point to the confluence of the high price of oil (enabling commercial production in Canada and Venezuela) and new research and extraction technology, making possible huge new finds in the Gulf of Mexico, could result in peak oil being still some time in future