It is also unrepresentative of the normal standards of this highly respected organisation. One is left to wonder if there is not a hidden agenda, given current US concerns regarding oil supply, price, and growing OPEC control. I assume this view is fairly common throughout US government. If the USGS is wrong, there is no need for the EIA to use the USGS numbers, except perhaps, to point out USGS errors. Both IEA and EIA project that world petroleum demand will grow at about 2-percent per year.
Oil wells are closed and fields are abandoned when they are losing money.
This very likely also means that they have lost energy for a while before they were closed. Since M. King Hubbert accurately predicted the peak in U.S. oil production, it's easy to understand why his methodology has gained a following in predicting the world oil production peak.