The technique of hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling have been around and used for over 40 years. The oil and gas fields being exploited have also been known of for more than 40 years. The massive increase in exploitation of these areas was due to high prices and super cheap debt. Check the EIA's website and see their definition of oil. Bitumen is not oil. Since about 2005 their charts and graphs have been showing all liquids including oil not just oil as I think they used to. The apparently massive increase in "production"(actually extraction, we are not producing anything) now includes natgas liquids, refinery gains, etc. Things that you would not be able to get sold as oil on any oil market. Peak oil is an inevitable fact as for any other substance extracted that has to do with the rate of extraction(not running out of) maxing out and at some point declining. There are theories describing it but the coming eventually is a fact just like gravity is an inescapable fact of this universe.
The technique of hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling have been around and used for over 40 years. The oil and gas fields being exploited have also been known of for more than 40 years. The massive increase in exploitation of these areas was due to high prices and super cheap debt. Check the EIA's website and see their definition of oil. Bitumen is not oil. Since about 2005 their charts and graphs have been showing all liquids including oil not just oil as I think they used to. The apparently massive increase in "production"(actually extraction, we are not producing anything) now includes natgas liquids, refinery gains, etc. Things that you would not be able to get sold as oil on any oil market. Peak oil is an inevitable fact as for any other substance extracted that has to do with the rate of extraction(not running out of) maxing out and at some point declining. There are theories describing it but the coming eventually is a fact just like gravity is an inescapable fact of this universe.