PEAK OIL FOR CONVENTIONAL RESERVES Peak oil represents the point in time when oil will reach its highest production levels and then steadily and terminally decline. It is likely that the world has reached, or will soon reach, peak oil (red arrow). The dip (black arrow) seen in the early 1980s represented an oil glut; conservation efforts during the oil crisis of the 1970s led to reduced demand, but we have since resumed an upward course of oil consumption.