Does anyone else think that the world will run out of oil in the next 10yrs?

Answer 1

Unlikely, though it may be safe to expect the price of petroleum to double or triple in that time, considering the growing demand, and the comparatively small amount of new oil discoveries.....

I will venture a wild guess, that there is enough oil to last, perhaps 25-50 years, at present production levels

There are NO reliable figures available to the public, on the amount of "proven oil reserves." It is an open secret that, as a rule, oil companies report amounts of reserves that are at best intentionally misleading, and at worst, totally fictional. They do so mainly in order to reassure investors and consumers, that petroleum is, in fact, a "reliable investment"....

The problem isn't so much finding the oil in the first place, but how to *extract* it. With present technology, at most only about 50-60% of oil from "conventional" deposits can be removed, before pumping simply takes too much energy to be at all worthwhile (i.e. it takes more energy than you get out as oil).

There are rather large amounts of petroleum to be found in "unconventional reserves", such as "heavy" oils, oil shale, and tar sands, etc...While not unfeasible from an energy standpoint, extracting oil from these sources would be rather expensive, time consuming, and would almost certainly be an environmental nightmare. *If the demand for petroleum rises enough, we will eventually begin doing so.* (The one benefit of these reserves is that they lie mostly outside the "OPEC triangle")

Personally, I am not a fan of the "doom and gloom" predictions of some activists. Humans are pretty resilient, and if we can't get what we want one way, we'll just find another.

Franky, we have the technology today to end oil dependence for good, it's just a matter of applying it, and more importantly, making some major changes to the whole infrastructure, as well as some extra cost and inconvenience. Once the price of oil rises enough, and the cost of replacement technologies shrinks, suddenly everybody will be eager to jump on the bandwagon. The world will hardly come to a halt, but in a few years, *this generation* will have to make a few tough choices, and maybe a few more really easy ones.

Thus leaving the oil barons to retire to their private islands.....

Hope that makes sense, done ranting for now.....
~W.O.M.B.A.T.

Answer 2

Oil, the second most plentiful liquid on the planet. Never mind that the Russians, with their deep earth drilling rigs have basically proved that oil is a renewable resource. According to the abiotic oil theory, more of the stuff is produced every single day. You can not possibly believe that oil came from a few plants or dinosaurs. Abiotic oil has been demonstrated in a laboratory and the oil companies are keeping it quiet. If people knew the truth, oil prices would plummet.

Answer 3

Absolutely not. I spent 22 years working for an Oil Company. Never in the history of the world has there been more than 25 years worth of known recoverable oil reserves. Is the amount of oil in currently known reserves decreasing? Yes, of course it is, every day, but that does not mean we will run out. As price increases, the amount of exploration increases dramatically resulting in new oil finds. In addition, there are many known oil reserves that we have never tapped because it costs too much to do so. With the price hikes over the past 2 years or so, many of these reserves are in the process of being tapped.

I remember some scientist saying that the US had sufficient coal to provide it's total power requirements for the next 300 years. Another said the Alberta Tar Sands contain more oil than exists in Saudi Arabia. There are problems with using coal or tar sands, but all of these problems can be overcome with money.

As price rises, so will known reserves until all at once, the price of crude will crash again. You have to remember in the late 1990s we were paying about $15/bbl. today it's $70/bbl.
It may never be $15/bbl again, but I'm willing to bet I will see $20/bbl in the next 5 years. I'm also willing to bet I will see $100/bbl in the next 10 years. But I doubt I will ever live to see us run out of oil.

Answer 4

Experts have claimed oil reserves to be adequate for another 30 years. Canada has recently announced development of its enormous tar fields, which put it on the map as the 2nd largest oil source. A problem with tar fields, and Canada's are no exception, is they can be very expensive to develop. The oil, expensive to extract and process, becomes atractive only as prices get higher. At current prices, developers of tar fields may see no profit for their work.

There are, of course, unexplored regions which may be discovered in time.

This leading to my point - Oil won't run out within 10 years, or even 20, from my perspective. This is little comfort, since we're not much farther from the oil exodus anyway. But, with the advance being made in hydrogen technology - most major auto producers, from Ford to Honda, having a working (and expensive) version of a hydrogen-powered vehicle - I have little doubt we'll be ready in time.

Answer 5

No
We haven't even started using our own largest reserves yet. My family worked for an exploration company for many years. They would drill, check the capacity of the well, GPS the location and cap is off with concrete. Did this for 6 years in just one area which right in the middle of the US.
There may be a refinery shortage,but there is no oil shortage.

Answer 6

No. We have ample of supply for the next 50 years. The black gold won't dry up that fast! Anyways scientist is working around to use other resources to replace oil - like palm waste etc.

Answer 7

No.
There are so many places on Earth that have yet to be explored.
That said, the odds are very good that crude oil will be available at least for the next 20+ years.

Answer 8

No.

Take a look at this:
http://www.bp.com/productlanding.do?categoryId=6848&contentId=7033471

BP does a huge review of world energy and breaks it down quite nicely in a pdf report.

Answer 9

Not a chance...the known oil reserves far exceeds our anticipated useage.

Answer 10

um ya. im sorry but the way we have been consuming oil really has used up most of our main oil supplyers. sadly enough the result of all that oil is global warming. jeez our actions are really catching up on us.