2007-02-24 14:31:27 · 14 answers · asked by Anonymous in Environment
I work offshore drilling for oil and gas. Trust me there is no shortage. Its just harder to get at and harder to refine. While it might be a good thing if we were to run out of oil the myth that there are only 20 years oil left or whatever is nonsense.
2007-02-24 14:43:37 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
Anyone alive at the moment will never see the end of hydrocarbon recovery. The amount of OIP (Oil In Place) around the world is certainly limited. However, there are undiscovered deeper wells to be drilled that will in all likelihood produce vast quantities of oil/gas. The tar sands mentioned by people have certainly got a high amount of hydrocarbons in them, though the recovery is at the moment a bit on the expensive side to make this a main supply for a worldwide market. As the amount of recoverable hydrocarbons reduce however, this expense will become negligible. Also, around the world there are many pre-drilled wells that still have vast quantities of oil/gas in them. These were shut in at the time of production since the technology was not advanced enough at that stage to make recovery economically viable. There are hundreds of wells in this situation which could be reopened and produced now.
A final point. The mal-educated person who seems to think that the Earth could carry on generating oil - this is certainly true - however it would take the current life on Earth to die, decompose in an anoxic zone and then be 'cooked' with a combination of high pressure (from being overlain by thousands of feet of rock) and time - about 220 million years. So, yes the Earth will continue to reproduce hydrocarbons, but I wouldn't want to be queuing at the garage for fuel while it happened.
2007-02-24 15:38:58 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
The Earth is not about to run out of oil. Not even close. There is an incredible amount of oil locked in oil sands; it's rumored that Canada has the largest oil reserves in the world, not Saudi Arabia. The only catch is that oil sands are difficult to harvest and process.
2007-02-24 14:50:12 · answer #3 · answered by Keiron 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
i am only slightly concerned about the petrol running out... there would be a bit of panic, but the big motor companies would need to find alternatives (they are just startiong to look now) and maybe the environment would start to recover a bit....
i'm much much more worried at the prospect of losing everything else that has oil in it... imagine no plastics, paints, inks...so much stuff contains oil and we'd be without it all....
that's pretty scary!
2007-02-24 20:02:30 · answer #4 · answered by phedro 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I am concerned that Governments don't seem so concerned about burning up this non-renewable energy source. They are so focused on "global warming" that they really do not see the reality that we are using up this resource and are far too dependant to ween ourselve off of it in the forseeable future.
Yes there are many pockets of unexplored areas of potential oil. It is thought that Alaska alone could supply the U.S. with another 80 or 90 years worth at minimum, but eventually we will burn through this resource and be left with useless machines.
2007-02-24 14:42:17 · answer #5 · answered by BP Guy 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The earth naturally produces oil....so basically, even though we take oil from the earth, it replenishes its stock. Just because it does this, does not mean that we need to keep using it...we need to become a more eco friendly environment.
I'm sure at some point it would run out, but not anywhere in the next few hundred years or so. I personally feel we are too dependent on oil, when we should be a "green" society. We need to learn to respect nature and our health!
2007-02-24 14:37:01 · answer #6 · answered by mommasquarepants 4 · 2⤊ 2⤋
I am definately concerned with oil running out. At the rate we are consuming fossil fuels, we will run out in no time. I believe that it is now that we should start thinking about alternative fuel sources and start using hybrid or green-running vehicles.
2007-02-24 14:35:40 · answer #7 · answered by Bee 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Why worry! They have invented cars which run on water and if thay can do that they have sustainable energy for everything else, they are just waiting for oil prices to go up so they could make loads of money!!!!!
2007-02-24 14:41:27 · answer #8 · answered by djdundalk 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
If that were true the oil companies would have already bought all of the rights to other energy production.. I don't think they have done that yet. So I am not concerned.
2007-02-24 14:38:16 · answer #9 · answered by the_buccaru 5 · 2⤊ 0⤋
No, they just found another 100 years of supply in an Oil Sands project in Alberta, Canada.
2007-02-24 14:36:00 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋