Peter is an economist, investment strategist, author and public speaker on issues vital to the future of energy.
He has clocked over 30 years of experience in the business of energy, spanning all systems from oil and gas to renewables. Peter’s passion is studying how society evolves its energy use and applying the lessons of the past into today’s strategic business issues. His holistic knowledge of physics, innovation, finance and economics allows him to give audiences thought provoking advice on how to think about the pressing issues on the future of energy systems.
An accomplished author, Peter’s two best-selling books, A Thousand Barrels a Second (McGraw-Hill, NY 2005) and The End of Energy Obesity (John Wiley & Sons, NY 2009) provide insight into the dynamic world of energy transitions through a thoughtful and highly readable examination of economic, environmental and geopolitical pressures. He has written over 600 weekly columns, current issues of which are distributed through various media channels.
Peter has an undergraduate degree in Geophysics from the University of Alberta, a graduate degree in Econometrics from the University of Southampton UK, and a Master of Science in Management of Technology from the Sloan School of Management at MIT. In addition to his principal roles at the ARC Energy Research Institute and ARC Financial, he is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Calgary and has lectured at many leading universities and conferences around the world.
Has financial disaster been averted in Canada’s oil and gas industry? ‘Disaster’ is all relative. Let’s just say 2019 is going to be a difficult…
“The Government’s intent in the policy was to provide for the orderly development of the oil sands in such a manner as to supplement but…
100 million. It’s a number that drowns comprehension; it’s more jelly beans than can fit in an average-sized swimming pool. Within a year, world oil…
Typewriters became obsolete. Therefore, oil will follow a sunset script too. This logic may seem disjointed and even a little pithy, but there are parallels…
Last week, the first salvo of a global trade war was fired: US tariffs on steel and aluminum. Like the “shot heard round the world,”…
“How’s the Canadian oil and gas industry doing?” a friend recently asked me. People on the sidelines expect a positive answer, knowing that a barrel…
U.S. oil prices are treading water above $US 60/B (WTI) again, the first time since 2015. Crude oil has a northerly wind in its sails,…
It’s that time of year when we flip our calendars to a new start. For pundits like me, it’s customary to make a listicle about…
Not long ago, the idea of 18-wheelers pulling cargo with a battery seemed somewhat ludicrous to me. But I’ve changed my mind. In fact, I…
Barrel traders recently pushed the price of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) oil above $US 55; the first time in over two years. Scarcity doesn’t really…
The world isn’t reinventing the wheel. But we are changing how it turns, who it carries and where it’s going. Over the next few decades…
Internal combustion engines keep accumulating at a rate of tens of millions per year. When is the earliest date that we could expect to see…
Imagine if we woke up tomorrow and read the headline, “GLOBAL PACT: ALL COUNTRIES AGREE TO BAN THE SALE OF INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES.” And then…
Change in the world of wheels is accelerating! Momentum is building and some days it’s hard to keep up. Every week, the assumptions about the…
The outlook for 2018 oil prices is dull. A majority of pundits have now corralled their one-year forecasts into a narrow, “lower-for-longer” price band, with…
NAFTA talks continue. Goods like milk, lumber and auto parts are all under the negotiators’ microscopes. Oil is clearly visible too. Last year, the bilateral…
“Lithium is the new oil,” goes the saying in electric vehicle (EV) circles. If you haven’t heard the catchy maxim, it means that new-age batteries…
Last week’s announcement by Volvo that every car, “it launches from 2019 will have an electric motor,” jolted oil investors. Then France amped up the…
(Click to enlarge) Headlines around electric cars and carbon policy suggest our oil dependency is on a slippery downward slope. Recent data from 2016 suggests…
Learning takes time and effort. But a good education pays off. North America’s oil industry has been in school for the past three years, studying…