The current U.S. Administration is moving toward enacting a “punishment” tax against the oil & gas industry. This will surely reduce capital expenditures by the industry thus reducing new reserve discovery, development and production. Expect $100+ oil as this predatory tax and accelerated existing field decline rates create the Perfect Storm. Additional taxes will be sucked out of exploration budgets and into government control. Is that the best use of money? I guess we could move that money to the financial industry to facilitate more bonuses for their execs.
The first detailed assessment of more than 800 oil fields in the world, covering three quarters of global reserves, has found that most of the biggest fields have already peaked and that the rate of decline in oil production is now running at nearly twice the pace as calculated just two years ago.
See: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/warning-oil-supplies-are-running-out-fast-1766585.html