''The Oil Drum'' was a website devoted to analysis and discussion of

energy In physics, energy (from Ancient Greek: ἐνέργεια, ''enérgeia'', “activity”) is the quantitative property that is transferred to a body or to a physical system, recognizable in the performance of work and in the form of hea ...

and its impact on society that described itself as an "energy, peak oil & sustainability research and news site". ''The Oil Drum'' was published by the Institute for the Study of Energy and Our Future, a Colorado non-profit corporation. The site was a resource for information on many energy and sustainability topics, including

peak oil Peak oil is the hypothetical point in time when the maximum rate of global oil production is reached, after which it is argued that production will begin an irreversible decline. It is related to the distinct concept of oil depletion; whil ...

, and related concepts such as oil megaprojects,

Hubbert linearization The Hubbert linearization is a way to plot production data to estimate two important parameters of a Hubbert curve, the approximated production rate of a nonrenewable resource following a logistic distribution: * the logistic growth rate and * the ...

, and the Export Land Model. ''The Oil Drum'' had over 25 online contributors from all around the globe. In 2013, the site ceased publishing new articles. As of October 2016, the site continues to function as an archive. ''The Oil Drum'' was rated one of the top five sustainability blogs of 2007 by

Nielsen Netratings Nielsen Media Research (NMR) is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre, films (via the AMC Theatres MAP program), and newspapers. Headquartered in New York City, it is best known for the Nielsen rat ...

, and was read by a diverse collection of public figures, including

Roscoe Bartlett Roscoe Gardner Bartlett Jr. (born June 3, 1926) is an American politician who was U.S. Representative for , serving from 1993 to 2013. He is a member of the Republican Party and was a member of the Tea Party Caucus. At the end of his tenure in ...

Paul Krugman Paul Robin Krugman ( ; born February 28, 1953) is an American economist, who is Distinguished Professor of Economics at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, and a columnist for ''The New York Times''. In 2008, Krugman was ...

James Howard Kunstler James Howard Kunstler (born October 19, 1948) is an American author, social critic, public speaker, and blogger. He is best known for his books ''The Geography of Nowhere'' (1994), a history of American suburbia and urban development, ''The Long ...

Richard Rainwater Richard Edward Rainwater (June 15, 1944 – September 27, 2015) was an American investor and philanthropist. With an estimated net worth of $3 billion, he ranked 211th on the Forbes 400 in 2015. His investing style was described as "analytically ...

, and Radiohead. In 2008, the site received the M. King Hubbert Award for Excellence in Energy Education from the U.S. chapter of the Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas (ASPO). ''The Oil Drum'' was started in March 2005 b
Kyle Saunders
(username "Prof. Goose"), a professor of

political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and la ...

at Colorado State University, an
Dave Summers
(username "Heading Out"), a professor of

mining engineering Mining in the engineering discipline is the extraction of minerals from underneath, open pit, above or on the ground. Mining engineering is associated with many other disciplines, such as mineral processing, exploration, excavation, geology, and ...

Missouri University of Science and Technology Missouri University of Science and Technology, or Missouri S&T, is a public research university in Rolla, Missouri. It is a member institution of the University of Missouri System. Most of its 7,645 students (fall 2020) study engineering, busi ...

(then known as University of Missouri-Rolla). The site first rose to prominence following its coverage of the impact of Hurricanes Katrina and

Rita Rita may refer to: People * Rita (given name) * Rita (Indian singer) (born 1984) * Rita (Israeli singer) (born 1962) * Rita (Japanese singer) * Eliza Humphreys (1850–1938), wrote under the pseudonym Rita Places * Djarrit, also known as Rita, ...

on oil and gas production. The staff grew by dozens and became well known for rigorous, quantitative analysis of energy production and consumption. A notable example is former editor Stuart Staniford's analysis of the depletion of

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...

Ghawar oil field Ghawar (Arabic: الغوار) is an oil field located in Al-Ahsa Governorate, Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia. Measuring (some ), it is by far the largest conventional oil field in the world, and accounts for roughly a third of the cumulative ...

Depletion Levels in Ghawar
. The site started out on the

Blogger A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order ...

platform, moved to Scoop in August 2005, and to Drupal in December 2006. In 2013, The Oil Drum announced that it would stop publishing new content and would turn into an archive resource. Reasons cited for this change include server costs and a dwindling number of contributors of high-quality content.

References

External links

The Oil Drum

- Interview with The Oil Drum editor Nate Hagens, January 7, 2008.
"The Oil Drum, peak oil and why some good blogs don’t last"
- Retrospective look at The Oil Drum and the circumstances leading to its shutdown, August 29, 2013. {{DEFAULTSORT:Oil Drum, The Energy economics Economics websites Internet properties established in 2005 Internet properties disestablished in 2013 American environmental websites Science blogs