[DAZ4160]

hi all,

what i would like to know is as to whether or not anybody can shed any light concerning the true volume of the worlds remaining oil and gas reserves.

i have been following many reports on both of the above for some years now and now its being confirmed by various sources that initial reports was hugely over estimated and it could be as little as 10 yrs before the oil reserves dry up or the price of which will go thru the roof due to the lack of.

in turn i have tried to contact the major oil companies for their views on the worlds reserves incl shell,bp,total but neither has replied within the last 2 weeks and so im wondering as to whether the situation is as bad as reported.

we all know we need both oil and gas if we are to continue living in modern times and its going to be a disaster when these reserves run dry.ok so steps are being taken to produce electricity without the need of using oil and there is planty of coal underground in order to make methanol as an alternative to petrol but surely cars still need oil in the engine.

in view of the above, i welcome your comments.do you believe we can cope with electricty generated by wind turbines and water? are gas fires / central heating systems going to become useless and we all go back to coal fires and the list goes on. of course it makes you wonder as to why the energy firms are reluctant to lower their energy prices, perhaps they know the truth and in turn are making the most of their profits from such fuels. either way the truth needs to come out asap..

[doctor daniel]

i to have often been wondering about this i don't think that oil will run out any time soon the energy and oil companies problaby say this to stop people from been envormently unfriendly. when you think about it, it does not take alot to be envormently freindly.

[Mike Gray]

Really complicated discussion, this one - the Wikipedia article on peak oil isn't a bad place to start, though...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peak_oil

[Rolebama]

As far as I am aware, there are still some very large oil lakes under the oceans, Siberia and South America. It is a matter of cost as to why they are, as yet, untapped. I assume that when this oil reaches the market, the price will be much higher than at the moment, so it is not yet financially viable to tap them. At the point where current supplies start running out, then someone will dig them out, and the retail price of fuel will rise by a considerable amount. Apart from these though, surely, oil will never actually run out, as it is a rolling process, although smaller amounts are being generated as time goes on.

[DAZ4160]

thanks mike, i have already followed the Wikipedia views on it but the times, independent and the insider amongst others are now stating otherwise and so who do we believe. at the end of the day, the top estimate is that we had enough oil to last 40 yrs and in reality thats not long at all. here is what the independent says on the matter:

Scientists have criticised a major review of the world's remaining oil reserves, warning that the end of oil is coming sooner than governments and oil companies are prepared to admit.


BP's Statistical Review of World Energy, published yesterday, appears to show that the world still has enough "proven" reserves to provide 40 years of consumption at current rates. The assessment, based on officially reported figures, has once again pushed back the estimate of when the world will run dry.

However, scientists led by the London-based Oil Depletion Analysis Centre, say that global production of oil is set to peak in the next four years before entering a steepening decline which will have massive consequences for the world economy and the way that we live our lives.

According to "peak oil" theory our consumption of oil will catch, then outstrip our discovery of new reserves and we will begin to deplete known reserves.

Colin Campbell, the head of the depletion centre, said: "It's quite a simple theory and one that any beer drinker understands. The glass starts full and ends empty and the faster you drink it the quicker it's gone."

Dr Campbell, is a former chief geologist and vice-president at a string of oil majors including BP, Shell, Fina, Exxon and ChevronTexaco. He explains that the peak of regular oil - the cheap and easy to extract stuff - has already come and gone in 2005. Even when you factor in the more difficult to extract heavy oil, deep sea reserves, polar regions and liquid taken from gas, the peak will come as soon as 2011, he says.

:eek:

[dnhcliho]

the years of oil production leading upto the FINAL oil production will be taken by the various military around the world, for aircraft and tanks etc...so they can use billions and billions of gallons fighting over the last few thousand gallons...

[wagolynn]

Thinking aloud here::confused:

If an oil company were to announce that it did not have any prospective sites to drill then its share value would plummet. Therefore, they are unlikely to give an honest answer to the question, ‘how much oil to come?’ I think that oil prospecting can still only come up with a probability that there is oil at any given site, it has to be drilled to be certain and to be able to get good estimate of volume. This makes all the figures banded about little more than speculation.

As oil price increases the economics of manufacturing oil get better, this acts as a damper on oil price. Having said that, I do think that we are seeing the end game for the internal combustion engine. At the moment it looks as though the fuel cell will be king.