Jean H. Laherrère (born 30 May 1931) is a French petroleum engineer and consultant,[1] best known as the co-author of an influential 1998 Scientific American article entitled The End of Cheap Oil.
[2] Since retiring from Total in 1991, Laherrère has consulted worldwide on the future of exploration and production of oil and natural gas.
He is the co-founder and an active member of the Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas, and continues to contribute detailed analyses and projections of the future of world energy production.
In 1998, with co-author Colin J. Campbell, Laherrere predicted that most likely "world production of conventional oil will peak during the first decade of the 21st century".
[4]: 43 In 2003, Laherrere predicted that the combined natural gas production of Canada and the United States had peaked in 2001, and would continue to decline, falling approximately in half by 2020.