Boone may be right.

The point of maximum oil production known as “Peak Oil” is upon us, said Energy Watch Group, a think tank based in Germany.

According to the Peak Oil hypothesis, oil production worldwide will plummet in the wake of Peak Oil.

The study from Energy Watch Group stated that by 2030, global availability of oil will stand at half of its current production—a scenario that could bring disaster and war, the study warned.

Although the study has faced some criticism as scaremongering, it is in line with popular opinion.

Don Paul, chief technology officer of massive energy conglomerate Chevron Corp., called the Peak Oil hypothesis “probably real” and admitted the oil supply will in all likelihood continue to dwindle—though he shrugged off the potential for catastrophe, noting the ascent of alternative energy.

But it was hedge-fund magnate T. Boone Pickens who brought the Peak Oil issue into focus last week with his prediction that oil would hit $100 a barrel.

The Texas oilman said the cost of oil would max out around the fourth quarter then drop to $80 a barrel, and went on to propose that Peak Oil had arrived.

Pickens, 79, said he expected Peak Oil would drive the development of alternative energy.

Billionaire Pickens is just one example of a hedge fund manager that has made a fortune investing in the energy sector. John Arnold, a onetime natural gas trader at Enron Corp., became the highest-paid manager last year, earning between $1.5 billion and $2 billion, according to a poll. His Centaurus Energy is an energy hedge fund.

Pickens himself is said to have raked in between $1 billion and $1.5 billion running energy hedge fund stalwart BP Capital.

But elsewhere within the hedge-fund industry, there is lingering doubt about the validity of the Energy Watch Group study.

“You have to look at where it came from,” said Erk Hinrichsen, cofounder of Energy Arbitrage Management, a New York hedge fund launched with seed capital from alternative asset manager M.D. Sass.

Hinrichsen said he doubted Peak Oil has taken hold, and belittled the report as politically motivated.

“Energy Watch Group is in Germany and is affiliated with the Green Party,” a liberal organization with a staunch environmentalist agenda, Hinrichsen alleged.

“It is in their interest to say we are at Peak Oil,” Hinrichsen said.

Hinrichsen is correct in framing Peak Oil as a political issue. On the opposite end of the political spectrum, the far-right British National Party, a longtime Peak Oil harbinger, has meanwhile called ongoing profit slump at British Petroleum proof of Peak Oil.

Should Peak Oil become a reality, Hinrichsen said fundamental analysis would “go out the window.”

“You would have to become an FX trader,” he said, and look to capitalize on the reverse correlation between the dollar exchange rate and the price of crude oil.

The $100 a barrel prediction, Hinrichsen said, is a “forgone conclusion.”

According to HedgeFund.net, there is $133 billion in hedge fund capital invested in the energy sector through the third quarter.