Personal note about bias: When this page started, in 1996, it really was mostly "interesting oil statistics" - largest fields and so on. It has evolved, as my personal interests and those of the page's viewers have evolved, to be a hodgepodge of information about a lot of complex things. I have tried VERY HARD to make this page be objective and free of bias - but it is done by a human being, and it is impossible to remove all my bias, even though as a scientist (geologist) I try to do that.

By way of background, in the late 1990s I really thought the "peak oil" people were crazy, or at least "doomsayers" and pessimists. Oil exploration people (like me) tend to be optimistic - you have to be, since you fail so often. But in the past 5 to 7 years, I've come to feel, largely through creating this compilation, that the "peak oil" people are a lot closer to right than are the "sweetness-and-light-and-nothing-is-really-wrong" crowd. I don't KNOW that - but based on what I can see and read with my own eyes, there is little question that Americans' oil guzzling will bring us to a fall, likely sooner rather than later. So, there, now you know my bias. Read this page with that in mind - but please also know that I still am trying very hard to keep it as objective as possible.

—Dick Gibson