The Wilderness Publications reported him as saying: "Any serious analysis now shows solid evidence that the non-FSU (former Soviet Union), non-Opec (Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries) oil has certainly PETERED OUT and has probably peaked..."
(Matthew Simmons - BBC News - 19th April 2004)
Did you know?
peter out
to dwindle or diminish and come to an end, as in "Their enthusiasm soon petered out."
The origin of this usage is unknown, but one authority suggests it may refer to the apostle Peter, whose enthusiastic support of Jesus quickly diminished so that he denied knowing him three times during the night after Jesus's arrest.
Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
"The music just petered out--there was no proper ending"
SYNONYMS: taper off, fizzle out, fizzle, poop out, run down, run out, conk out