Are we running out of fossil fuels? - peak oil theory

[DrainPondDesign]

Getting back to "are we running out of fossil fuel" you are correct in that the term fossil for practical purposes means that it is not being replaced & so would run out eventually. The reality is that as it gets rarer it may not matter how much is left if it is too expensive to use.

Bio fuels look like they may supplement fossil based fuels but there does not seem to be enough growing area available for them to be a total replacement. The entire 2005 corn & soybean harvest if processed into ethanol and bio-diesel would have only replaced 6% & 12% of fossil gas & diesel used that year. That would leave none for corn on the cob or tofu.

Whether the future looks bright or gloomy we are going there & new generations will make the best of it as they always have.

 

[YanmarFever]

A lot of folks can't understand how we came to have an oil shortage here in our country.

Well, there's a very simple answer.

Nobody bothered to check the oil.

The reason for that is purely geographical.

Our OIL is located in:

ALASKA

California

Coastal Florida

Coastal Louisiana

North Dakota

Wyoming

Colorado

Kansas

Oklahoma

Pennsylvania
And
Texas

Our dipsticks are located in DC.................

 

[dex3361]

I remember the last oil shortage we had in the late 70s early 80s. It sticks in my mind the experts statements that "we only had enough oil for 15 years". I heard the experts speak again a while back and guess what they said "we will run out of oil in 15 years". Hmmm I think I would come up with something else to say cause what they are saying now discredits them.

 

[mjarrels]

Fear sells. Added bonus, buys votes.

mark

 

[BobRip]

Even if we don't run out the further out you go and the deeper the water is the more it will cost you to drill.

 

[inveresk]

I don't think these guys are bluffing.

Christophe de Margerie, CEO of Total Oil, September 2009 - "We are running the risk of another oil crisis when demand outstrips supply around 2014 or 2015. There won’t be enough oil and gas by the middle of the next decade."

Jeroen van de Veer – CEO of Shell, 22nd January 2008 “Shell estimates that after 2015 supplies of easy-to-access oil and gas will no longer keep up with demand.”

Dave O’Reilly - Chevron, 15th February 2008, "We're seeing the beginnings of a bidding war for Middle Eastern oil between east and west."

George W. Bush, March 5th 2008 "We gotta get off oil, American has got to change its habits,".. "It should be obvious to all, demand has outstripped supply, which makes prices go up."

James W. Buckee - Retired President and CEO of Talisman Energy Inc., 29th January 2008. "If you think that at the moment the world is consuming 30-plus billion barrels a year of oil and is finding seven or eight billion barrels a year, and this state of affairs has been going on now for 20 or more years. "It's obviously unsustainable and the world is increasingly drawing on the bigger, older fields. You couple that notion with the irreversibility of decline and you've got a very alarming picture."

 

[tulenutn2o]

I don't think these guys are bluffing.

Really?

 

[inveresk]

I don't think these guys are bluffing.

Really?

The reason for engaging in debate is surely to exchange information and encourage the dissemination of knowledge. What I tried to show in my post is that there are a number of top oil industry professionals that think there is a very serious problem and that the current equation of consumption against discovery of new reserves is unsustainable.

If the purpose of your post is to say you think they're lying, then providing some evidence to support that contention might be more fruitful in encouraging meaningful debate than a one word expression of disbelief.

 

[IH3444]

All the easy to get to oil, has for the most part been gotten to, and burned with no concern for the future. We'll have oil, it just will be much more expensive.

 

[EddieWalker]

I don't know how much oil is out there, and I don't think it's a simple thing to figure out. I know that every year, more oil is discovered and the known oil reserves on the planet is constantly changing. 30 years ago the known oil reserves was very limited, but today, there is a massive amount of known oil available.

Government is creating the run up on the price of oil because they are limiting what we can drill. The gulf oil leak was a disaster that didn't need to have been, but it was handled so poorly that it's hard to believe that those in charge are really that stupid. Maybe they are, but their action after the spill have been right in line with their political leanings. Close down drilling and raise the price of oil.

All we have to do is remember what happened when George Bush agreed to open up more drilling off the coast. It didn't even happen, he just said he would allow it, and the world price on oil collapsed. Obama has close all that down and then a lot more. The results are easly predictable.

Eddie