Profit from the Peak: The End of Oil and the Greatest Investment Event of the Century

Most of time while reading this book I was thinking, "Why didn't I know that?" I would recommend this well written and easy-to-understand book to everyone who wants to gain a broad understanding about what is going on with energy and oil. The target market appears to be the intelligent layman with helpful hints on how your investing strategy might benefit. Suddenly, when watching the talking heads you will spot the horrible, over-simplified, childish thinking that we are bombarded with every day, especially from the silver bullet types. It is well researched and referenced, and I highly recommend it.

There is little to disagree with in the ideas brought forth in this book. There is simply too much credible evidence about the depletion of fossil fuels to credibly deny it. The book provides a good primer for people who have not heard of peak oil and it is worth reading for that reason alone. The idea of profiting from this information needs to be put into perspective though. The great Peter Lynch would often extol the virtues of investing in things that we encounter in our every day lives rather than taking the advice of investment gurus who might have other agendas. To that extent, this book makes a lot of sense for patient investors. The challenge of investing in new energy technology is that you are dealing with a lot of very small companies. These companies have the right ideas but they also have a long distance to travel from emergence to market leadership and potential investors should be wary and expect to hold their invvestments for considerable periods of time. Many companies will not make it and will either be gobbled up by larger companies or go down in flames. So investing with a wary eye is critical and following the sector and individual companies, especially chat groups on the Internet may be a good strategy. Investing in these emerging companies is not for the faint of heart though they are mostly onto something important.

My hat is off to Mr. Hicks and Mr. Nelder. This is a very, very good book and well worth the time and money to read it. I do not share the authors optimistic view of the future. I have learned this (1) people cannot or will not imagine an outcome in which they don't want to happen (2) we love good endings in books and movies (3) we love when the good guys always win and we are saved just before the storm. I read comments people post on Peak Oil wedsites and they are already experts on Oil, Saudi Arabia and Russia, yet it's very clear they've never worked in the Oil Industry, never been to Russia and wouldn't know a Saudi if he flew a 747 up his butt. However, Mr. Hicks and Mr. Nelder are well informed and I am impressed with the quality of their technical data and their research. These are two very smart men. I found no mistakes in their technical data in this book. However, they left out one of the most important Peak Oil factors which is labor. Who's going to build our great new energy world? You can't replace 78 million boomers with 48 million Gen Xer's and the numbers after the Gen Xer's aren't good at all. Everyone assumes (without knowing) that people in 2030 will have the knowledge and technical skills to save our energy world. How do you know that? Money is just a claim on someone else's labor. Without labor your money becomes worthless. So Mr. Hicks and Mr. Nelder have us driving into a happy electric future with electric cars and mass electric transit. They say "never sell short humanity." We will be saved by smart creative humans with new technology. Don't hold your breath! This is the same logic that allowed people to believe that the American Civil War would only last two weeks and WWI was "the war to end all wars." Over all I found the book very, very good and the Data Good and some very good investment advice. Regards, Keith Renick, Project Materials Specialist, Central & Western Region Projects Department, Project Management Team, Riyadh Refinery, Saudi Aramco Oil Company, Retired.

Profit From The Peak is one of those rare works that not only decodes what is an esoteric and dense subject, but puts forth the information without bias, and without spin. Personally, I think this volume has within its covers information that can make the reader a fortune. And, Heaven forbid, if things really go off the deep end, it could literally be a life saver. I've been reading Hicks' work for years now, and can attest to his uncanny ability to take the big picture and distill it into a series of concise, clear and highly profitable steps, time and time again. Teamed up with Chris Nelder, the duo has really hit this one out of the park. Even a true novice to the concept of Peak Oil can pick up this book and come away with a keen understanding of the core concepts, and a bullet-proof strategy for long-term profit. For the investor, the principle of Occam's Razor is true here; Go long oil, in all its incarnations. But doing so without understanding exactly how the world got to this point--a total dependence on a finite energy source--would do one a disservice. There's simply too much at stake, globally and personally, not to be fully up to speed on the concepts and strategies explained so eloquently in Profit From The Peak. I urge any serious thinker, investor....anyone at all, to read this book as soon as possible. Tomorrow may simply be too late.

According to the authors, the supply of oil is dwindling rapidly. We must have viable alternatives in the short to intermediate term. Simultaneously, the supply of oil is dwindling and global population is soaring to 9 billion by mid-century. 50% of USA imports of oil are from Canada, Mexico, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela. Ultimately, true oil could reach $500/ barrel by the author ! How do you fight back? You do so by building autos that can get 100 MPG amongst other R & D investments. In addition, the supply of oil will last another 30 years absent any major oil discoveries. A $20 trillion dollar investment in R and D is needed to quench the current industrial thirst for energy. Lastly, 60% of proven oil reserves are in the Middle East. There are huge investment opportunities. i.e. o Suncor Energy is the largest tar sands company. o Allegro Biodiesel Corporation has expertise in biodiesel fuels. o Peerless Manufacturing Company deals in pollution abatement. There are a number of viable alternative energy sources. i.e. o solar energy and power generated in desert environments o tar sand re-processing o cleaner burning coal, scrubber technological enhancements... o nuclear power o The "Artificial Sun"- a multi-nation fusion project o wind mill power for farming and rural areas o hydroelectric power and environmental safeguards of salmon et. al. The author should have developed some of the above options in the work. Nonetheless, the book provides a rich source of information with profound future implications. It is the "Future Shock" of the energy industry.