PeakOil 1 : What is it?

Peak oil is the moment in time when humans produce the most oil that they ever will, thereafter production will steadily decline - mirroring the growth of production to the peak but almost certainly more abruptly. Very likely that will closely coincide with the moment we have produced half this planet's recoverable oil. We will only know after it happens, probably a year or more after, unless some catastrophic event makes it clear. The exact day is unimportant, the year of peak oil seems the most appropriate measure.

It will certainly happen someday, unless oil is a continuously renewing resource, the only question is when.

Wikipedia has a good introduction:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubbert_peak
A longer explanation:
http://www.answers.com/peak+oil

Here is a concise summary:
http://www.copad.org/index.print.php?doc=oilpeak-war.doc

A very few people do not believe that oil and other fossil hydrocarbons are produced from dead plants and animals = "biotic oil", they believe in "abiotic oil". This is a good discussion of that possibility:
http://www.museletter.com/archive/150b.html

I agree with the above link and think that abiotic oil is incorrect for at least 99.9% of the oil we find. If you want to know more about abiotic oil try these, but I think it is a false idea and not worth reading about:
http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/100404_abiotic_oil.shtml
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abiotic_oil
and a series of 3 articles exploring in detail various facets of abiotic oil:
http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/102104_no_free_pt1.shtml
http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/011205_no_free_pt2.shtml
http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/012805_no_free_pt3.shtml

So, unless you believe in abiotic oil the big question becomes: when?