Association For The Study of Peak Oil and Gas

The Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas, or ASPO, is a network of scientists, affiliated with a wide array of global institutions and universities, whose goal is to attempt to determine the date and impact of the peak and decline of the world’s production of oil and gas, due to resource constraints.

ASPO was founded by Colin Campbell in 2000. It is the most influential organization supporting the "peak oil" theory, meaning that future oil supply will be much less than commonly expected. Their studies use the Hubbert curve, devised by M. King Hubbert, among many other methods to which predict future oil availability. It is a common misunderstanding to believe that ASPO and peak oil only is about the Hubbert curve.

Geologists, energy researchers and many other scientists from the following countries are represented in ASPO: Australia, Austria, Denmark, China, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Peak Oil and ASPO persons appears in the documentary films The End of Suburbia, PetroApocalypse Now?, and a series of video interviews on Oil Education Television. (http://www.youtube.com/oileducationtv).

But ASPO has its share of critics. The current debate revolves around energy policy, and whether to shift funding to increasing fuel efficiency, and alternative energy sources like solar and nuclear power. Campbell's critics, like Michael C. Lynch, argue that his research data is sloppy. They point to the date of the coming peak, which was initially projected to occur by the year 1997, but the date was pushed back to 2000, then 2010, moved up to 2006 (in 2004) and later (2005) back to 2010. Campbell explains this with the fact that he has got better data from industry and more reliable estimates. However, Campbell and his supporters insist that when the peak occurs is not as important as the realization that the peak is coming.