How much oil is left? And what is the timeframe until it runs out.?

Question

i want to know approximately how many years we could possibly until oil runs out for good?

Answer 1

i heard very recently from a large company that we so far have only used 15% of the world's supply of crude oil. We have around 3 trillion barrels. 110-112 yrs. probably more since we are coming out with more efficient means of energy.

Answer 2

Recently a huge oil find in the Gulf Region. Also the Atlantic region and the oil sands of Alberta. They (the oil dudes) are always finding new deposits. I dont think they will run out as maybe there are oceans of it undiscovered under water. If the core areas of the earth are swimming in oil, this would be really wierd. But it wouldnt do us any good because oil is going to go the way of the dodo bird very soon. New technologies can replace oil very quickly. What is holding us back from changing to another renewable resource which is earth-friendly is the status quo. Oil makes money.

Answer 3

No one really knows. You need to look at what are called "proven reserves" (which is what we're sure is in the ground) and the rate of change in the rate of consumption. There is also unproven reserves which are what we think is in the ground and also unexplored areas where we don't really know.

The world uses more oil every year so we do not stay at the same rate. As the third world begins to industrialize, like China has been doing for 10 years, they will use more oil. We might figure out a way to use less with technological advances or alternative fuels so it really depends on what we do. Personally I don't think we'll 'run out' in our lifetime but it will get more expensive which will force us to conserve whatever is left.

Answer 4

People have been asking this for a hundred years. During this entire time, the answer has been 20-30 years from now. Does that give you a hint? Seriously, there's a lot, and we can recover a lot more by reworking fields that had become uneconomic at lower prices. Also, there's a lot of oil sand in Alberta, and a huge amount of organics in Colorado oil shales. So, it may (make that WILL) become more expensive, but we won't run out in our lifetime -- or our grandchildren's.

Answer 5

For the last 30 years, the "experts" keep saying that Oil would run out in the next 30 years.

Answer 6

They just found a new source in the Gulf of Mexico and new technology is allowing companies to get oil from new sources. It depends on how much oil is used world wide, but I seriously doubt either of us will live long enough to see the day when we run out of oil.

Answer 7

I heard an expert on the radio and also read on the Internet that someone in OPEC grudgingly admitted if we continue at the rate we are at we have enough oil for the next 110 years. Hopefully we will be on an alternative fuel by then. I hate being held hostage by our need for oil.

Answer 8

They are squeezing us dry for every cent while they can. There is a new technology that allows us to drive cars without oil. In fact, there are countries in South America that are now completely independent of Middle East oil.

Answer 9

One often hears about "Hubbert's Peak," which was a prediction made about fifty years ago by M. King Hubbert, a geologist with Shell Oil, that US oil production would peak in about 1970 and decline precipitously thereafter. People often extrapolate from this to infer that we are "running out" of oil on a worldwide basis, but that is not a valid inference. What Hubbert was referring to was the light, easily obtainable crude that was the hallmark of US production. In that sense Hubbert was right.

HOWEVER, those predictions were also based on the price of oil at the time of about $20 a barrel (in today's dollars), and falling, and on the technology of the time. Even in the US, due to both improvements in technology and the rise in the price of oil, we are able to produce oil from formations that would have been impossible in Hubbert's time.

So called "proven reserves" are a measure not only of the oil that is known to exist in various places, but also what is extractable. If we knew that there were a trillion barrels of oil on the moon, for instance, they would not be considered proven reserves because we have no way of extracting that oil.

Currently Saudi Arabia is considered to have the largest proven reserves, at 180 to 260 billion barrels (depending on who is doing the measuring). Second is Iraq, with 115 billion barrels. The Saudis are currently producing about 3 billion barrels a year, and at that rate we have sixty to ninety years of Saudi production left. Iraq, by contrast, is barely producing at all. There are only 3,000 producing wells in Iraq, compared with 300,000 in Texas alone, and Texas does not have nearly the proven reserves that Iraq has. Also, Iraq has had a bit of disruption in its production of late, and is not even producing at the rate it was before the invasion in 2003, and that was not very much.

Then there are other potential sources of oil. For instance, Canada is considered to have 180 billion barrels of "proven reserves," but most of that is in the form of oil sands, which are much harder to refine than the nice, fluid heavy Saudi crude. The steep rise in the price of oil over the last few years has made Canada's oil sands profitable to produce. In fact, when it comes to "foreign" oil, most of the US imports come from Canada. We get a little more from the Middle East as a whole, but on a per-country basis, Canada comes out ahead.

Then, too, there are the 300 billion barrels of "proven reserves" under Venezuela, most of which is in the form of tar oil, which is a very, VERY, thick form. Up until recently, this has been almost prohibitively expensive to extract, but with oil in the $65-$70 per barrel range, and projected to go up, this is looking more doable.

Finally, there are an estimated two trillion barrels of oil, more than in all of the Middle East, locked up in oil shales under the Rocky Mountains, right here in the US. But this oil is currently almost unproduceable, due to both the difficulty of extraction and of refining. But it's there, and with oil at the right price, and with the right technology, it is possible.

All of this does not even consider the potential for offshore production. Just recently there was a huge new find out in the Gulf of Mexico, and people have been exploring there for decades. We have barely begun to explore the deeper ocean.

To make a long story short, there are billions, and potentially trillions, of barrels of oil left. At current rates of consumption, and even considering increased demand from the burgeoning economies of India and China, we have enough oil for at least a hundred years or more, conservatively. And given a high enough price for oil, and the right technology, it could be much longer.

But of course if the price of oil, and all the things made from oil, gets to be too high, then other forms of energy which may not currently be seen as economically feasible might become a lot more attractive.

Answer 10

At current consumption about 120 years I believe.