Peak oil apocalypse sooner than expected?

An unnamed whistleblower at the International Energy Agency say that the world is a lot closer to running out of oil than previously thought. Excerpt:

The world is much closer to running out of oil than official estimates admit, according to a whistleblower at the International Energy Agency who claims it has been deliberately underplaying a looming shortage for fear of triggering panic buying.

The senior official claims the US has played an influential role in encouraging the watchdog to underplay the rate of decline from existing oil fields while overplaying the chances of finding new reserves.

The allegations raise serious questions about the accuracy of the organisation's latest World Energy Outlook on oil demand and supply to be published tomorrow - which is used by the British and many other governments to help guide their wider energy and climate change policies.

'There's suspicion the IEA has been influenced by the US' Link to this audio In particular they question the prediction in the last World Economic Outlook, believed to be repeated again this year, that oil production can be raised from its current level of 83m barrels a day to 105m barrels. External critics have frequently argued that this cannot be substantiated by firm evidence and say the world has already passed its peak in oil production.

[H/T: Sullivan.]

UPDATE: Sharon Astyk:

It turns out that an IEA whistleblower is alleging that the IEA, succumbing to US government pressure, has been understating the seriousness of our energy situation. And if you don't follow the IEA, you probably don't realize how extreme a statement that is - late last year the IEA announced that was predicting extremely high decline rates, of above 6% going into the coming decades. They claimed this stemmed not from peak oil, but from insufficient investment, but the numbers they cited were at least as dramatic as the most extreme peak oil advocates in many cases. So you want to pay attention when people say that the IEA has dramatically understated the concern.