Steve Crower is a believer: "Peak Oil" is coming. He says, "Matt Simmons was right (in 2005) and if no one got the message then, they will get it soon." Crower is a Denver-based energy investment banker with Starlight Investments LLC, and formerly in finance and operations for oilfield-service companies FMC Technologies and Network International, and an investment banker for Capital One Southcoast. "Over the past 10 years I felt as though I have been drinking from a fire hydrant as I have been fortunate to have worked in the upstream, midstream and downstream aspects of the energy industry," he says. He has a civil engineering degree from the University of Michigan, and an MBA from Rice.Crower made a presentation on "peak oil" in April in Houston to the National Oil Equipment Manufacturers and Delegates Society (NOMADS). He says Matt Simmons, founder of Houston-based energy investment-banking firm Simmons & Co. International, converted him to Peakism. Simmons is the author of "Twilight in the Desert: The Coming Saudi Oil Shock and the World Economy." Crower heard him speak at the Offshore Technology Conference in Houston in 2005. “After the presentation, a stunned audience walked back into the conference. My managing director at the time dismissed the presentation…. Since I personally knew Matt, I had difficultly with believing he would put his hard-earned reputation on the line by writing a book, and making a presentation to 400 industry executives just to sell a few books and generate a few more investment-banking transactions.” Crower cites several reasons why the "peak oil" theory is true. One is a personal observation. He lived in New Orleans in 2005 during Hurricane Katrina, which wiped out 15% of U.S. refining capacity. “I watched market forces increase the price of gasoline from $1.50/gallon to $3 in the following days to counteract the lack of supply. How could a 15% decline in supply result in 100% increase in price? This small supply ‘shock’ reinforced to me how little resiliency there is in our energy supply chain.” Click here for Crower's slideshow, stevecrowerpeakoilpresentationslideshow41008houston.pdf, and click here for his narration stevecrowerpeakoilpresentationnarration41008houston.pdf. Crower can be reached at 832-771-3888 or scrower@starlightinvestments.com. –Nissa Darbonne, Executive Editor, Oil and Gas Investor, A&D Watch, Oil and Gas Investor This Week, www.OilandGasInvestor.com; ndarbonne@hartenergy.com
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