"we are definitely not in some world ending peak oil crisis."

AP,
I would not argue that we are yet in a PO crisis, nor that it would necessarily be "world ending."
But there is much to be concerned about re. global supply of liquid fuels, and Ulen flagged three of the main ones:
- flat conventional production for 7 years
- demand growth in China & India
- demand growth within KSA and other major oil exporters.

Here in eastern Canada, the UK used to be our #1 supplier of crude only a decade ago, but it is in ever-worsening terminal decline (17% for 2011).
Chatham House warned that the export capability of KSA is likely to start to decline in about 10 years' time: should this occur, we will certainly enter a new era.

I agree with Lt. Col. Eggen that (for many reasons) nations may stick with oil until the last minute despite he risks of doing so. We still have no scaleable replacement for petroleum, least of all at the last minute. I see little room for complacency re. liquid fuel supply.

Meanwhile, we have the ill-informed claiming that we have trillions of barrels of shale oil, apparently just waiting to be pumped:
http://opinion.financialpost.com/201...-awash-in-oil/