Term that parallels peak oil but probably bears a closer relation to the facts that stem from peak oil. Peak capability refers to the ability of oil and gas companies to be able to match the earth’s resource endowment on the one hand, with the capability – technology, skills and know-how – required to bring those resources to market on the other. It is generally accepted that the days of ‘easy oil’ are well behind us. For International Oil Companies, and increasingly National Oil Companies too, new resources are harder to reach and tougher to produce. Resources are now found in increasingly challenging environments: reservoirs which lie at greater water depths, at higher temperatures and pressures and require complex drilling and completion designs – in the deserts of the Middle East and North Africa; in the deepest waters of the Gulf of Mexico, West Africa and Brazil; and in the Alaskan and Russian Arctic. Furthermore, many of these resources are controlled by NOCs which do not always have the same capability at their disposal as IOCs. Bringing them into production is going to be difficult. It will require that the capability gap be filled. Turning these resources into reserves and then production is going to require leadership, ingenuity and innovation as well as technology. That is the capability challenge.