The world may be basking in the warm glow of economic recovery, but some observers are warning of an unseen spectre, lurking in the background.
Just as the global economy has strengthened in recent months, so has the price of oil.
The warning bells are sounding.
Professor Newman says that peak oil was reached in 2008, and that prices have been artificially suppressed since then.
He says the 2008 crunch contributed to the global financial crisis.
"Peak oil did happen, I believe, in 2008," he said, "140 dollars a barrel was a massive increase and it didn't happen because some oil exporting country had a revolution or something - it just happened because we couldn't produce enough to meet demand, and that's what peak oil is about.
But Professor Aleklett isn't entirely pessimistic.
He says he has confidence that the market, and in the world's governments, will ensure that an oil-price-driven catastrophe will be avoided.
"I'm one of those people that believe that it's not very possible to have a high price of oil because that would mean the end of globalisation" he said.
"The fact is that [if the price hit] $200 a barrel then there an airline industry [would not exist] any longer."
The University of South Australia's Dr Vlado Vivoda also says a crunch can be avoided.
"What peak oil theorists miss out on is the fact that with improvements in our technologies and improvements in a drop in oil production costs what it is considered oil is changing," he said.
abc
