Dr. Philip H. (Pete) Stark is vice president of industry relations for IHS in Englewood, Colorado, the provider of global field production and drilling data. Since joining IHS in 1969, he has held several senior management positions, including marketing and international operations.

But what Stark really is is a watchdog who follows oil and gas developments globally. As such, he is the architect and moderator of IHS Perspectives programs held in energy cities, providing analysis on global energy activity and supply and demand. He is also an advisor to the IHS Expert Source Program, which is a formal thought-leadership program.

“I haven’t found a lot of oil, but I have helped the people who do find it,” he says, “by making a conscious decision to go into enhancing the world’s oil-data systems.”

Stark has written papers and spoken on the standardization and veracity of E&P databases, information-management trends and industry-data standards, horizontal drilling, U.S. natural gas productivity, global energy supply and demand, global petroleum industry trends and unconventional oil and gas resources.

He began his career as an exploration geologist and computer guru at Mobil Corp., after being a roustabout during the summers while attending the University of Oklahoma. He graduated from OU in 1958 with a bachelor’s in geology, and earned his master’s and doctorate in geology in 1963 from the University of Wisconsin. Recently, Wisconsin’s Department of Geology and Geophysics honored Stark’s contributions to the university and profession with a Distinguished Alumni Award.

Investor Pete, you’ve been tracking macro-data for the world for a long time. What do you make of $100 oil?

Stark I was surprised, because in our data at IHS on basic supply and demand, we do not see a severe supply crunch at the moment, or in the near term, to support this level of anxiety.

Investor You don’t buy a supply crunch?

Stark No, not during the next decade. We do a bottoms-up assessment of all announced major liquids projects in the world, assuming normal business conditions and that these projects will be completed at the volumes those companies or countries have promised, and supply looks adequate through 2017 and likely beyond. By the way, that includes oil, gas and NGLs. We do not have a shortage of oil resources, but unpredictable geopolitical factors could inhibit the progression of these projects.

Investor There’s a problem with reserves data too.

Stark We analyzed official country reserves data (2P) as reported for 98 countries for 2004-05. It was amazing. Essentially, 39 countries had not changed their reserve number for five years—and 17 of them had not changed their data in 15 years!

One African country had reported the same reserves for 12 years, even though its annual production had grown to a level 10 times larger than the official reserves! A Middle East producer reported the same reserves for 15 years even though it produced more than 10 billion barrels in the period.

This lack of transparency in official reserves gives rise to uncertainties and anxieties that drive today’s high oil prices and doubts about future supply.

Investor What about unconventional gas in the U.S.?

Stark It’s going to be absolutely critical for U.S. gas supplies. Consequently, I’m not sure why natural gas is so overlooked from a policy point of view. Politicians want to deny access to domestic gas resources and they want to tax clean natural gas to subsidize alternate energy sources.

Investor What about the U.S. gas picture concerns you?

Stark Last fall at an energy conference at Louisiana State University, I documented that the Gulf Coast region (onshore and offshore) had lost almost 8 billion cubic feet (Bcf) of daily production during the past eight years. That appears to be offsetting all the increased gas production we see from the Rockies of about 5- or 6 Bcf a day, and from the Fort Worth Basin. Recent developments like the Independence Hub have come onstream, adding about 1 Bcf a day to Gulf production.

Unless major new high-volume plays like the Pinedale Anticline develop, or breakthroughs in recovery technologies come along, more gas wells must be drilled every year to sustain U.S. gas supplies, and I don’t know if government regulations will allow it.

Our data show that, at the end of 2007, about half of daily U.S. gas consumed was coming from wells drilled during the past 40 months. In 2006, we had to drill almost 30,000 gas wells to finally boost U.S. gas production to the 2002 level.

This is basic, but startling, information for us to swallow. Hopefully, our policy-makers will not overreact to the challenges of balancing energy security and climate-change concerns.

Investor Do you follow alternative energy?

Stark Yes. It is clear that alternative energy must be part of our evolving energy security and carbon-reduction plans. But without dramatic technology breakthroughs, it will be difficult to achieve some of the lofty perceptions.

There’s a lack of appreciation for the scale of energy we need, in the minds of the politicians and the public, to replace the amount of oil, gas and coal needed to drive the U.S. economy.

I’m very concerned about the gap between political rhetoric and the energy and carbon-reduction realities that must be addressed.