Will we ever run out of oil?

Answer 1

nope, surely not when people like edward james olmos and ray liotta walk the earth.

Answer 2

Yes, but thats not the real question, the real question is when do we reach the point where the supply of oil is outstripped by demand. As China and India's economies continue to grow, their demand for oil is ever increasing.

For as much oil there is in the ground, there is only so much capacity to pump so much out of the ground, which then has to go to a refinery to be refined into usable products. There are only soo many refineries and it takes almost 10 years to build a new one.

Once that happens, rich countries will drive up the price more, spurring more research into alternative fuels....

and for the person that said we went from wood to coal to oil... they are all basically the same thing, buring forms of carbon fuels. and the US electricity generation, (your computer you're reading this on) is generally powered by coal, of which the US has domestically a 200 yr supply at current rates (about 85 years supply of demand continues to climb.

So in the end the increasing price of oil will make it to where there will never run out, but the supply could be so much smaller than demand that it is no longer a viable option to be the backbone of our economy.

Answer 3

Yes, in a sense, we will. What normally happens in an oil field is the longer you pump, the harder and more costly it gets to retrieve it. The oils is deeper and more scarce, so the pumps cant pump as much.There are hundreds of thousands (maybe millions) of oil wells sitting idle because the oil is to costly to pump out. When oil was selling at $30/barrel, small wells would be shut down when they could only produce a few barrels a day. When oil sells at $100/barrel, many of these would be started up again. So you see, "running out" is an economics factor. We are now pumping out all the "easy to get" oil. There is much more but it is hard to get.

Answer 4

Theoretically the answer is yes and various people say soon or not so soon.

You have to remember that there is easy to get oil and hard to get oil. As oil prices go up and the easy to get oil runs out, the oil companies will find ways to get the hard to get oil.

Answer 5

good question; too few answers. theories abound, but the most argumentative answer is "no". the making of oil is a long, complex process dealing with pressure to "cook" the oil. the time involved is a few million years. too much pressure and too much "cooking" leads to coal and diamonds.

peat, after enough "right conditions" can lead to oil.

scientists once believed oil came from dinosaur-decay and the carboniferous age of amphibians, then discovered millions of years between the two events.

there is even a theory, we are going to find oil on a moon revolving around Jupiter because of the methane gases (a key ingredient in the making of oil) escaping into its atmosphere.

so, basically, the answer is "no" . the resource will dwindle and the "grade" of oil to be found will be "dirtier", but it will always be there.

Answer 6

if we did it would just be because we pumped it out faster than nature can make it.... oil like diamonds can be made in a matter of weeks by humans.. or millions of years by nature...

I'm pretty sure by the time we hit that mile stone. most nations will be working off of nuke power or something like that
electric car etc... just a matter of time and price

just remember oil is now and always will be there... just a matter of finding the new fields...

Answer 7

The answer is probably no despite the fact that it is not a renewable resource. Economics works by making it more expensive and rare so only the richest people will be using it. So to you and me it will run out.

Answer 8

no, we will not run out of oil. we will just transition to another source of power. we never ran out of wood just moved on to coal and oil. we never ran out of stones just moved to bronze and iron.
if we don't find a replacement we will run out of cheap oil. we may have already run out of $10 barrel oil

Answer 9

Yes, the amount of fossil fuels is finite, everntually they will run out.

Answer 10

Yes but don't worry we can find an other material for to kill each other oh sorry for to drive our cars.