Worldwide, Youngquist and Duncan project that oil production will peak at 30.6 billion barrels a year in 2007, when the consequences of the longstanding decline in the rate of discovery become inescapable. Production will steadily decline thereafter, falling to 11.5 billion barrels a year by 2040. Over the course of just over three decades, Youngquist and Duncan warn, the amount of oil burned worldwide will decline by nearly two-thirds. (01/07/02)
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