Sunset For The Oil Business Reading Answers

Dec 17, 2022

Sunset For The Oil Business Reading Answers is the topic including a total of 14 questions, which should be attempted by the candidates within the given time span of 20 minutes. Sunset For The Oil Business Reading Answers is a topic discussing about the importance of oil and why the world will run out of it in the near future has also been explained in the passage in detail. The given IELTS topic has been taken from the book named “IE-ENG-school IELTS Reading Test With Answers Key (New Edition)”. The candidates for understanding the overall concept should mandatorily go through the passage. The topic is divided into three sorts of questions, which are, Yes/No/Not Given, no more than a word, and choosing the correct letter. In order to recognize the synonyms and identify the keywords and for answering the questions below, the candidates should thoroughly skim the IELTS reading passage to analyze the gist of the passage. The topics like Sunset For The Oil Business Reading Answers can be prepared by the candidates by practicing the IELTS reading practice papers.

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Section 1

Read the Passage to Answer the Following Questions

Sunset For The Oil Business Reading Answers

The world is about to run out of oil. Or perhaps not. It depends on who you believe…

Members of the Department Analysis Centre (ODAC) recently met in London and presented technical data that support their grim forecast that the world is perilously close to running out of oil. Leading lights of this moment, including the geologist Colin Campbell, rejected rival views presented by the American geological survey and the international energy agency that contradicted their findings. Dr Campbell even decried the amazing display of ignorance, denial, and obfuscation by government, industry, and academics on this topic.
So is the oil really running out? The answer is easy: Yes. Nobody seriously disputes the notion that oil is, for all practical purposes, a non-renewable resource that will run out someday, be that years or decades away. The harder question is determining when precisely oil will begin to get scarce. And answering that question involves scaling Hubbert’s peak.
M. King Hubbert, a Shell geologist of legendary status among depletion experts, forecast in 1956 that oil production in the United States would peak in the early 1970s and then slowly decline, in something resembling a bell-shaped curve. At the time, his forecast was controversial, and many rubbished it. After 1970, however, empirical evidence proved him correct: oil production in America did indeed peak and has been in decline ever since.
Dr Hubbert’s analysis drew on the observation that oil production in a new area typically rises quickly at first, as the easiest and cheapest reserves are tapped. Over time, reservoirs age and go into decline, and so lifting oil becomes more expensive. Oil from that area then becomes less competitive in relation to other fuels, or to oil from other areas. As a result, production slows down and usually tapers off and declines. That, he argued, made for a bell-shaped curve.
His successful prediction has emboldened a new generation of geologists to apply his methodology on a global scale. Chief among them are the experts at ODAC, who worry that the global peak in production will come in the next decade. Dr. Campbell used to argue that the peak should have come already; he now thinks it is just around the comer. A heavyweight has now joined this gloomy chorus. Kenneth Deffeyes of Princeton University argues in a lively new book (“The View from Hubbert’s Peak”) that global oil production could peak as soon as 2004.
That sharply contradicts mainstream thinking. America’s Geological Survey prepared an exhaustive study of oil depletion last year (in part to rebut Dr. Campbell’s arguments) that put the peak of production some decades off. The IEA has just weighed in with its new “World Energy Outlook”, which foresees enough oil to comfortably meet the demand to 2020 from remaining reserves. Rene Dahan, one of ExxonMobil’s top managers, goes further: with an assurance characteristic of the world’s largest energy company, he insists that the world will be awash in oil for another 70 years.
Who is right? In making sense of these wildly opposing views, it is useful to look back at the pitiful history of oil forecasting. Doomsters have been predicting dry wells since the 1970s, but so far the oil is still gushing. Nearly all the predictions for 2000 made after the 1970s oil shocks were far too pessimistic. America’s Department of Energy thought that oil would reach $150 a barrel (at 2000 prices); even Exxon predicted a price of $ 100.
Michael Lynch of DRI-WEFA, an economic consultancy, is one of the few oil forecasters who has got things generally right. In a new paper, Dr. Lynch analyses those historical forecasts. He finds evidence of both bias and recurring errors, which suggests that methodological mistakes (rather than just poor data) were the problem. In particular, he faults forecasters who used Hubbert-style analysis for relying on fixed estimates of how much “ultimately recoverable” oil there really is below ground, in the industry’s jargon: that figure, he insists, is actually a dynamic one, as improvements in infrastructure, knowledge, and technology raise the amount of oil which is recoverable.
That points to what will probably determine whether the pessimists or the optimists are right: technological innovation. The first camp tends to be dismissive of claims of forthcoming technological revolutions in such areas as deep-water drilling and enhanced recovery. Dr. Deffeyes captures this end-of-technology mindset well. He argues that because the industry has already spent billions on technology development, it makes it difficult to ask today for new technology, as most of the wheels have already been invented.
Yet techno-optimists argue that the technological revolution in oil has only just begun. Average recovery rates (how much of the known oil in a reservoir can actually be brought to the surface) are still only around 30-35%. Industry optimists believe that new techniques on the drawing board today could lift that figure to 50-60% within a decade.
Given the industry’s astonishing track record of innovation, it may be foolish to bet against it. That is the result of adversity: the nationalizations of the 1970s forced Big Oil to develop reserves in expensive, inaccessible places such as the North Sea and Alaska, undermining Dr. Hubbert’s assumption that cheap reserves are developed first. The resulting upstream investments have driven down the cost of finding and developing wells over the last two decades from over $20 a barrel to around $6 a barrel. The cost of producing oil has fallen by half, to under $4 a barrel.
Such miracles will not come cheap, however, since much of the world’s oil is now produced in ageing fields that are rapidly declining. The IEA concludes that global oil production need not peak in the next two decades if the necessary investments are made. So how much is necessary? If oil companies are to replace the output lost at those ageing fields and meet the world’s ever-rising demand for oil, the agency reckons they must invest $ 1 trillion in non-OPEC countries over the next decade alone. That’s quite a figure.

Section 2

Solution With Explanation
Question Number (27- 31)
Do the following statements agree with the claims of the writer in Reading Passage
In boxes 27-31 on your answer sheet, write:

YES if the statement agrees with the information
NO if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this

(Guide: Candidates need to identity the questions and mark them as Yes or No or Not Given)

Hubbert has a high-profile reputation amongst ODAC members.

Answer: Yes
Supporting Sentence: Members of the Department Analysis Centre (ODAC) recently met in London and presented technical data that support their grim forecast that the world is perilously close to running out of oil.
Keyword: running out of oil
Keyword location: Paragraph A, line 1
Explanation: The first line of paragraph A states that recently, Department Analysis Centre (ODAC) members gathered in London where they provided technical evidence to back up their bleak prediction that the world is dangerously near to running out of oil.

Oil is likely to last longer than some other energy sources.

Answer: Not Given
Explanation:No valuable information has been provided in the passage to support this sentence.

The majority of geologists believe that oil will start to run out sometime this decade.

Answer: No
Supporting Sentence: Rene Dahan, one of ExxonMobil’s top managers, goes further: with an assurance characteristic of the world’s largest energy company, he insists that the world will be awash in oil for another 70 years.
Keyword: another 70 years.
Keyword location: Paragraph F, last line
Explanation: Paragraph F suggests that one of ExxonMobil's top managers, Rene Dahan, goes farther, insisting that there would be an abundance of oil for at least another 70 years with the confidence that is typical of the world's greatest energy firm. So, it is an incorrect statement.

Over 50 per cent of the oil we know about is currently being recovered.

Answer: No
Supporting Sentence: He argues that because the industry has already spent billions on technology development, it makes it difficult to ask today for new technology, as most of the wheels have already been invented.
Keyword: billions on technology development
Keyword location: Paragraph I, last line
Explanation: The conclusive part of paragraph I suggests that Dr. Deffeyes says that since the industry has already invested billions in technological research, it is challenging to call for new technology now because the majority of the wheels have already been invented. Hence, the statement is correct.

History has shown that some of Hubbert’s principles were mistaken.

Answer: Yes
Supporting Sentence: He finds evidence of both bias and recurring errors, which suggests that methodological mistakes (rather than just poor data) were the problem.
Keyword: recurring errors
Keyword location: Paragraph H, line 3
Explanation: Line 3 of paragraph H imples that the discovery of bias and recurrent errors raises the possibility that methodological faults rather than just bad data were to blame. So, the statement is correct.

Question 32-35

Complete the notes below

Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage for each answer.

Write your answers in boxes 32-35 on your answer sheet.

Many people believed Hubbert’s theory was 32…………….. when it was originally presented.

When the oil field is 33……….., it is easy to…

The recovery of the oil gets more 34 ………………..as the reservoir gets older

The oil field can’t be as 35…………………… as other areas

Question 32:

Answer: controversial
Supporting Sentence: “At the time, his forecast was controversial, and many rubbished it.”
Keyword: forecast, controversial
Keyword location: Paragraph C, line 2
Explanation: Line 2 of paragraph C suggests that M. King Hubbert, a Shell geologist who is revered among depletion experts, predicted in 1956 that oil production in the United States would reach its peak in the early 1970s and then gradually fall, following a bell-shaped pattern. His prediction was controversial at the time, and many people discounted it.

Question 33:

Answer: tapped (new)
Supporting Sentence: “Dr Hubbert’s analysis drew on the observation that oil production in a new area typically rises quickly at first, as the easiest and cheapest reserves are tapped.”
Keyword: Dr Hubbert’s analysis, tapped
Keyword location: Paragraph D, line 1
Explanation: The beginning part of paragraph D says that Dr. Hubbert's study was based on the finding that oil output in a new region often increases quickly at first when the simplest and least expensive deposits are exploited.

Question 34:

Answer: expensive
Supporting Sentence: “Over time, reservoirs age and go into decline, and so lifting oil becomes more expensive.”
Keyword: lifting oil, expensive
Keyword location: Paragraph D, line 2
Explanation: Line 2 of paragraph D explains that removing oil from the ground costs more as reservoirs deteriorate and age over time.

Question 35:

Answer: competitive
Supporting Sentence: “Oil from that area then becomes less competitive in relation to other fuels, or to oil from other areas.”
Keyword: Oil, less competitive
Keyword location:: Paragraph D, line 3
Explanation: The third line of paragraph D explains that when compared to alternative fuels or oil from other regions, that region's oil becomes less competitive.

QUESTION 36-40:
Look at the following statements (Questions 36-40) and the people below.
Match each statement with the correct person, A-E.
Write the correct letter, A-E in boxes 36-40 on your answer sheet.
(Guide: Candidates need to answer the questions by selecting the correct person from the passage)

List of People
A Colin Campbell
B M. King Hubbert
C Kenneth Deffeyes
D Rene Dahan
E Michael Lynch

Has found fault in geological research procedure.

Answer: Michael Lynch
Supporting Sentence: He finds evidence of both bias and recurring errors, which suggests that methodological mistakes (rather than just poor data) were the problem.
Keyword: recurring errors
Keyword location: Paragraph H
Explanation: The paragraph H says that one of the few oil analysts who has generally gotten it right is Michael Lynch of the economic consultant DRI-WEFA. Dr. Lynch examines those past predictions in a recent research. He discovers bias and recurrent errors, indicating that methodological problems rather than just bad data were the issue.

has provided the longest-range forecast regarding oil supply

Answer: Rene Dahan
Supporting Sentence: Rene Dahan, one of ExxonMobil’s top managers, goes further: with an assurance characteristic of the world’s largest energy company, he insists that the world will be awash in oil for another 70 years.
Keyword: another 70 years
Keyword location: Paragraph F
Explanation: The paragraph F states that one of ExxonMobil's senior managers, Rene Dahan, goes even further, insisting that there will be an abundance of oil for next 70 years with the confidence one would expect from the largest energy firm in the world.

Has convinced others that the oil production will follow a particular model.

Answer: M. King Hubbert
Supporting Sentence: After 1970, however, empirical evidence proved him correct: oil production in America did indeed peak and has been in decline ever since.
Keyword: empirical evidence, proved him correct
Keyword location: Paragraph C
Explanation: The paragraph C explains that oil production in the United States will peak in the early 1970s and then gradually fall, in a pattern approximating a bell-shaped curve, according to a 1956 prediction made by M. King Hubbert, a Shell geologist who is renowned among specialists on depletion. His prediction was controversial at the time, and many people discounted it. But after 1970, actual data showed that he was right: American oil output did indeed peak at that time and has been declining ever since.

has accused fellow scientists of refusing to see the truth

Answer: Colin Campbell
Supporting Sentence: Dr Campbell even decried the amazing display of ignorance, denial, and obfuscation by government, industry, and academics on this topic.
Keyword: decried, denial
Keyword location: Paragraph A
Explanation: Paragraph A implies that the leaders of the time, such as the geologist Colin Campbell, dismissed competing theories put out by the American Geological Survey and the International Energy Agency that were in conflict with their findings. Dr. Campbell even criticised the astounding ignorance, denial, and obfuscation displayed on this issue by the government, business, and academic circles.

has expressed doubt over whether improved methods of extracting oil are possible .

Answer: Kenneth Deffeyes
Supporting Sentence: Kenneth Deffeyes of Princeton University argues in a lively new book (“The View from Hubbert’s Peak”) that global oil production could peak as soon as 2004.
Keyword: argues, could peak
Keyword location: Para E
Explanation: The paragraph E implies that The View from Hubbert's Peak, a fascinating new book by Princeton University professor Kenneth Deffeyes, makes the compelling case that oil production could peak as early as 2004.

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