Peak oil may be coming as soon as 2020, but it won't be driven by a lack of oil in the ground, said Suncor (SU) CEO Rick George at a forum on the future of energy at the Inter-American Development Bank meeting in Calgary. "I always think of this peak oil theory as more politically driven than it is physically driven." 
George believes peak oil--or the point at which oil production will start a permanent decline--could come by the end of the decade due to constraints on oil extraction imposed by governments concerned about carbon dioxide and other issues. World oil production reached its highest level so far in 2008, when it averaged 85.5M barrels/day.