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Colin John Campbell (1931 – 2022)

Exploration geologist who warned the world about the energy constraints posed by ‘peak oil’. 

Colin John CampbellI first met Dr Campbell in 1995 at the University of Reading, where he gave a lecture on peak oil and warned that the world would soon face maximum production of conventional oil. An academic in the audience strongly disagreed, so colleagues and I investigated this. Conversations with oil experts and Petroconsultants SA (who held the world’s best petroleum data) indicated that Dr Campbell’s view was likely correct. In 2005, as predicted, the world indeed reached its resource-limited maximum of conventional oil production, at least for oil prices >$100 per barrel. This had serious consequences, as increased global demand for oil since then has had to be met by non-conventional oils. Since non-conventional oils are more expensive to produce than conventional oil, this forced a sharp increase in oil prices, which contributed to both the 2008 financial crisis and to today’s cost of living crisis.

Left: Dr Colin John Campbell. Photo courtesy of Jack Zagar.

Professional career 

Dr Campbell studied geology at the University of Oxford, and later completed a DPhil, with fieldwork in Connemara, Ireland, and in central Borneo. In 1958, he started his first post as a field geologist with Texaco, in Trinidad. This was where Dr Campbell met Dr Hans Kugler, who had pioneered micro-palaeontology to help unravel the complex geology of the island. Texaco decided to apply this approach to its exploration in South America and Dr Campbell was transferred to Colombia in 1959 to assist. 

Subsequent posts saw Dr Campbell rise through the ranks of several oil companies around the world, including BP and Amoco, until his final position as executive vice president of Petrofina’s Norwegian operations. 

Peak oil studies 

Like most petroleum geologists, Dr Campbell initially thought that finding more oil was only a matter of looking, and, indeed, his fieldwork in Colombia uncovered the prolific Llanos basin. But, over time, as he was asked to undertake ever-wider studies of oil availability, first of Colombia, then South America, then the world, he came to understand the constraints to oil supply. As a result, he requested that Petrofina fund a major Norwegian Petroleum Directorate study of global oil availability, which led to Dr Campbell’s 1991 book The Golden Century of Oil. George Leckie of Petroconsultants read the book and persuaded Dr Campbell and Jean Laherrère to carry out a similar study using Petroconsultants’ data. This resulted in three key consultancy reports and the landmark 1998 Scientific American article 'The End of Cheap Oil'. 

After retirement, Dr Campbell strove to get the ‘peak oil’ message across. He supported the Oil Depletion Analysis Centre, a small research centre in London; wrote a monthly newsletter and several more books, including Campbell’s Atlas of Oil and Gas Depletion; set up the Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas with Professor Kjell Aleklett; and started the journal The Oil Age, of which I was editor. 

A kind, humorous, and generous man, Dr Campbell was willing to share his hard-won knowledge with all who asked. He is survived by his wife, children, and their families. 


By Roger Bentley