ODAC was founded in June 2001 on the belief that an informed public debate about the likely impacts of depleting oil supplies is critically needed.

On 30 March 2012, the activities of the Oil Depletion Analysis Centre (ODAC) were taken over by its parent organisation, the New Economics Foundation (NEF).

[2] In November 2005, ODAC published a report after conducting a survey led by Chris Skrebowski, which concluded that oil supply will not meet demand by 2007 or 2008.

[4] David Strahan is an investigative journalist and documentary filmmaker, with many years experience of popularising some of the most difficult and important stories in business and science.

He quit the BBC to spend two years researching and writing The Last Oil Shock: A Survival Guide to the Imminent Extinction of Petroleum Man, published by John Murray in April 2007 (pbk ISBN 0719564247).