How much longer can we gwt oil from earth?

Question

when will we finish our oil reserves.

Answer 1

As of this year, oil production has peaked. From now it is a slow decline and prices will increase as a result. It is true that we can derive fuels from coal for which we have much more of. The problem is that if we use this carbon for fuel, then CO2 levels will not just cause runaway greenhouse effects, but the CO2 concentration would mean that the air is poisonous to animal life. Having vast reserves of coal is therefore just half of the story.

We will never run out of oil, some more can always be squeeze out of the Earth at a price, just as it's not possible to squeeze the last bit of toothpaste out of the tube.

Answer 2

Short answer - for more then 100 years. It's also possible to turn coal into oil. If we do that it will take even longer to run out of oil.

There are some interesting videos in which this is mentioned. Some lectures given by a physics professor at Berkeley.
http://webcast.berkeley.edu/courses/archive.php?seriesid=1906978373
He talks about oil in the first 2 videos.
In the first one titled "Energy and Power 1" from time index 45:15 to 51:00. And in the second one "Energy and Power 2" from index 57:00 to 1:04:00.

But even if we run out of oil there are still enough other kinds of fossile fuels. Could last for a few hundred years.

lol musiclicker - Replenish faster then we use it up? How is that supposed to work? We use this stuff up about 1,000,000 times faster then it is replenished.

Answer 3

The earth takes care of itself. People have this misconception that we will pump it all out and the earth will collapse or something. The oil that we pump out is being replinished by other reserves. I would get plenty of arguments concerning this, but the crude that is down there is not like a store room that is empty when we remove the stock. It may get less and less and harder to find, but there is more being made down there. Crude is made from organic matter from millions of years ago, but as we go forward, the organic material from another time will become crude. We have no way of knowing if we are using it faster than it is replinished. That is speculation, but highly possible it won't keep up with our demands. As other sources of energy come forward, such as atomic, wind, corn, and solar, our need for crude will become less and less, up to a point of not needing the crude that is down there. We will adapt to these new energies out of necessity, due to it getting harder to find the crude which will drive the price of energy so high that other sources will become cheaper to use. Once this happens, the use of crude may even become a thing of the past. The Arabs know this, and are making all the money they can, while they can. When you take into consideration that most of the earth is covered with water, and Hydrogen energy (which makes a bi-product of water) seems to be the wave of the future in transportation, we might forsee a problem with too much water and no place to dump it! Who knows? Think about this; All things that come from the earth, return to the earth. Have Fun!!

Answer 4

Estimates range from 30 years to 120; so it all depends on who you ask; there are thousands of untapped reserves, and as long as people need oil, others will try and find it; although it will become increasingly rare. this rarity will push the price of oil up, making it out of the range of most people and countries in the world, thus for the majority of the worlds popultaion will probably 'run out' of oil in the next 30ish years.

with increased usage fo oil - rapid industrialisation in the far east, LEDCs - Poorer countries and slow increase in western countries the amount of oil used is set to increase, but we will probably as a planet never run out oil; it will just be incredibably difficult to get hold of it.

Hope this helps

Answer 5

We've found all of the "easy" oil deposits....I mean easy like its cheap to find, refine, transport, like the kind found in Texas....As oppose to the "oil sands" in Alberta Canada, maybe the world's largest oil reserve, but will all that sand mixed in it....it takes a long time and money to refine....We've got 200 years worth of oil....but we should use the remaining time to look for other sources of energy.

Answer 6

According to the survey done in Kuwait the oil in the ocean floor will last only for another 150 years.

Answer 7

someplace on the order of one billion years. If humanity continues to be round at the same time as this will change into an difficulty, then I assume we will have solved this mission. in reality, my favourite end-of-earth situation is that human beings will dismantle the planet for raw elements to construct area colonies - that may honestly be positioned on the most mushy distance from the daylight, inspite of which will be. wish that permits!

Answer 8

I don't suspect to much longer, Fossil fuels are bad for our Planet anyhow.