New developments in North American oil production have fueled talk of an oil renaissance and “energy independence.”  This session looked beyond the hype to examine the factors that will determine whether North American oil production can be increased and sustained, and at what cost.  Key questions included:

  • Will technology overcome economic and physical limits to oil supply, or will North America soon return to a declining trend?
  • Will new oil developments be sufficient to overcome losses from older oilfields?
  • How does experience in Texas inform the outlook for the nation?

Tadeusz Patzek
Chair, Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering, The University of Texas

Tadeusz Patzek is the Lois K. and Richard D. Folger Leadership Professor and Chairman of the Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering Department at The University of Texas at Austin.  He also holds the Cockrell Family Regents Chair #11. Between 1990 and 2008, he was a Professor of Geoengineering at the University of California, Berkeley. Prior to joining Berkeley, he was a researcher at Shell Development, a unique research company managed for 20 years by M. King Hubbert of the Hubbert peaks.