OILCRASH

copyright by Basil Gelpke

A 90 minute documentary on the planet’s dwindling oil resources
Lava Productions AG, Zurich, Switzerland
www.oilcrashmovie.com

Is it really money that makes the world go round?  If only it were so simple.  Oil lubricates our global economy.
Proof? 98% of the world’s transportation is directly dependent on oil.
Just two analogies to illustrate the value of oil:
A single barrel contains the equivalent energy of twelve men working for a whole year: We owe our wealth to the abundant supply of cheap energy.
Ten calories are needed for every calorie produced on a US farm: We literally eat oil.
Demand continues to grow and there is less and less new oil to be found: Already we are using up four barrels of oil for every new one discovered.
We have reached or are about to reach the peak in worldwide production.  The price of oil — even now far less than that of bottled water — is still much too low given its limited availability and its unique qualities.
What if it quadruples in an instant because of hurricanes or terrorist attacks and the subsequent panicking?  What if war was the only way to secure the last remaining fields? 
What does it mean to all of us, our economies, our countries, our civilization?
Is the sky really falling — or are we just crying wolf?
More and more geologists, politicians and experts in the oil industry worry that peak oil production will happen in this decade. Some even believe it is happening right now.
In this compelling and highly entertaining documentary, OilCrash, Producers/Directors Basil Gelpke and Ray McCormack together with Reto Caduff explain why the imminent peak in oil production will present the world with the most dire and immediate repercussions. OilCrash is the story of how our civilization as we know it, is on a collision course with geology.
Supported by a powerful mix of archival footage, NASA shots of burning oil fields, and historical film excerpts, OilCrash guides us on an exotic, visual journey to Houston and the West Texas oil country, Caracas, the Lake of Maracaibo, the Orinoco delta, Central Asia’s secretive republic of Azerbaijan with its ancient capital Baku and the Caspian Sea, Shanghai, Hong Kong and London. We visit the worlds’ capitals to learn of our future from such leading authorities as oil investment banker Matthew Simmons, former OPEC chairman Fadhil Chalabhi, and legendary former Saudi oil minister Sheikh Zaki Yamani.
OilCrash is today’s hot topic and only now is the real story of peak oil told. 
The day of the peak of crude oil extraction and its subsequent decline has been predicted many times over. In fact, soon after the discovery of what oil could be used for in the 19th century, there was talk about the coming demise of the oil industry. As each prediction proved the doomsayers wrong, the public became numb and each incorrect prediction reinforced the case of never-ending flows of cheap oil. 
But it will end.  There is no arguing the fact that all fossil fuels, including crude oil and natural gas, are non-renewable finite sources.  Over the past few years more and more experts have concluded that we are close to the time when oil production will peak.  When we first began to look at the subject of Peak Oil in 2004, we became caught up in a survivalist way of looking at the world.  What we had read in books and found on the Internet, heard in conversations with people concerned with the issue was simply shocking.  These were not doomsday scenarios from conspiracy theorists, but hard scientific facts backed by serious research.  The sudden activity in the search for alternative energies from major energy corporations reinforced this bleak picture.
Suddenly, seemingly unconnected news about Katrina and Rita hitting the gulf coast’s oil refineries; the ongoing war in Iraq; the de facto nationalization of Yukos in Russia; the feeble response from OPEC officials and countries; the steep rise in costs of everything oil-related and even increasing share prices of companies involved in solar, wind and nuclear energy all pointed in the same direction.
This is not purely a Western, American or European issue — but a truly global one.  It is beginning to affect everybody — everywhere.

Zurich, 28 November 2005
© Lava Productions AG, Attenhoferstrasse 34, CH 8032 Zurich, Switzerland
Fon + 41 44 261 15 15 – Fax + 41 44 261 15 16
www.oilcrashmovie.com
Contacts: oshea@lavatv.com, bgelpke@lavatv.com,