Raymond James believes in Peak Oil...

Analysts Raymond James are on board with the concept of Peak Oil.

Global production of petroleum peaked in the first quarter of last year, says analysts Raymond James, which “represents a paradigm shift of historic proportions. Unfortunately, mankind better get ready to live in a peak oil world because we believe the ‘peak’ is now behind us.”

Raymond James’s notes that non-OPEC oil production apparently peaked in the first quarter of 2007, and given precipitous falls in oil output from Russia to Mexico, there’s not much hope for a recovery. OPEC production—and thus global output—peaked a little later, in the first quarter of 2008, Raymond James says.

The contention rests on a simple argument: OPEC oil production actually fell even as oil prices were above $100 a barrel, a sign of the “tyranny of geology” that limits the easy production of ever-more crude.

“Those declines had to have come for involuntary reasons such as the inherent geological limits of oil fields … We believe that the oil market has already crossed over to the downward sloping side of Hubbert’s Peak,” the analysts write.

My hope is that enough trusted names will get behind the Peak Oil concept that the public-at-large will start to get their heads around it. Once it moves in from the fringe, we can get more people putting their shoulders to the wheel as we try to figure out what the hell to do about it.

To that end, it's also worth mentioning that Peak Oil is getting traction in some other circles as well.

But it seems that companies outside those industries most directly exposed to volatility in the supply of fossil fuels—oil and gas, construction and energy utilities—still do not see this as being a direct threat to their own businesses. Ernst & Young says that the risk of energy shock is a peril that is still “below the radar” for most enterprises.

However, the Industry Taskforce on Peak Oil & Energy Security—a group of UK-based companies including Arup, Foster and Partners and Virgin Group—has warned of the consequences of not being prepared for oil production reaching its peak.

“Neither the government, nor the public, nor many companies, seem to be aware of the dangers the UK economy faces from imminent peak oil …The risks to UK society from peak oil are far greater than those that tend to occupy the government’s risk-thinking, including terrorism,” the Taskforce’s report said.

These dangers are not confined to the UK, but the Taskforce calls on the British government and companies to consider the risks and to plan strategies in response to this problem.

The funny thing is, not only is ignoring the problem socially irresponsible, it's also tantamount to competitive suicide. This will be (as quoted from above) a "paradigm shift of historic proportions" and anybody not ready to get with the program, business/industry included, is going to find themselves trying to play a very hard game of catch up if they can't get ahead of the ball.