David Fickling, Columnist

Peak Oil Has Finally Arrived. No, Really

Those who have called a top in oil may finally be proven right as sharp global rate hikes hurt consumption.

Is the sun setting on oil?

Photographer: Jason Alden/Bloomberg
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I’ve rarely felt more trepidation about writing a column than this one. But here goes: After more than a century of almost continual growth, the world’s appetite for oil is peaking, and will soon enter terminal decline.

That’s hard to write, because those who’ve called a top in oil have a forecasting record on a par with film producer Harry Warner’s skepticism that people in the 1920s wanted to see talking pictures.