Peak Oil

About this board game

Peak Oil is a competitive board game for 2–5 players, with games lasting about 75 minutes. Each player leads a major oil company preparing for a future without oil while trying to extract the last valuable resources from fields around the world.

Players assign their agents to action spots across the board. Control an action spot through a majority of agents, or send mercenaries to reinforce your position and secure the linked action. Competition can be direct, and the approaching crisis encourages companies to pursue whatever means may help them survive.

Available actions let players develop and harvest oil fields, build pipelines, and expand their operations. They can also hire new agents, buy ship contracts, invest in oil replacement technologies, and promote those technologies through public relations campaigns.

• Develop and harvest oil fields
• Build pipelines and acquire ship contracts
• Hire agents and use mercenaries to contest action spots
• Invest in oil replacement technologies
• Manipulate public opinion and oil prices
• Engage in piracy and run PR campaigns

Oil is represented by a set number of small barrels drawn from a bag whenever new oil fields are developed. As those barrels disappear, the world moves closer to peak oil. When the oil runs out, the game ends.

Victory goes to the company that best shaped the future. Players tally the value of the technologies they invested in and promoted, with the winner being the company that gained the most favor for its vision. In Peak Oil, short-term extraction and influence must ultimately support a future beyond the resource that built the industry.