Shock News – World Running Out Of Oil

13 Responses to Shock News – World Running Out Of Oil

1. Dave N says:

   August 10, 2012 at 3:27 am

   Heh.. it seems every few years someone says that, then we discover more reserves. Certainly it is finite, but right now only one thing is constant: hysterics from doomsayers.

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   • Eric Simpson says:

     August 10, 2012 at 5:25 am

     Yeah, finite like air is finite, and that’s even without oil being abiotic as some believe. Sure that’s an exaggeration, but I’m seeing more and more techniques and technologies, and new surprise venues for exploitation. I’m hearing that oil & gas production is soaring. It’s the diametric opposite of what 5 years ago the peak oil fanatics thought would be happening now. In practical terms, we are starting to see that it’s effectively infinite, in the sense that by the time we ever start to even come near approaching running out of oil, we’d have developed new forms of energy, like cheap inexhaustible nuclear fusion.

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   • Eric Simpson says:

     August 10, 2012 at 6:01 am

     Well I’m reading my own link from my last comment about abiotic oil: http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/on-energy/2011/09/14/abiotic-oil-a-theory-worth-exploring
     Interesting. They believe oil is not a product of fossils, but has a non-biological origin as “a renewable, primordial syrup continually manufactured by the Earth under tremendous pressures… That source of hydrocarbons seeps up through the earth’s layers and slowly replenishes oil sources.” Among some strange things happening that point to abiotic oil as a possible explanation is this:
     “Production at an oil field called Eugene Island, off the coast of Louisiana, was supposed to have declined years ago. And for a while, it behaved like any normal field: Following its 1973 discovery, Eugene Island 330’s output peaked at about 15,000 barrels a day. By 1989, production had slowed to about 4,000 barrels a day.
     Then suddenly—some say almost inexplicably—Eugene Island’s fortunes reversed. The field, operated by PennzEnergy Co., is now producing 13,000 barrels a day, and probable reserves have rocketed to more than 400 million barrels from 60 million.”

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     • Shooter says:

       August 10, 2012 at 10:15 pm

       I’ve heard that Earth is replenishing its natural resources at a far faster rate – in a span of decades, not centuries. I don’t remember where I read that, though.

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2. Amino Acids in Meteorites says:

   August 10, 2012 at 5:32 am

   What’s funny is how many people believed him and turned down the thermostat in the winter and put in a sweater.

   Well, it would be funny if it wasn’t so sad.

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3. Amino Acids in Meteorites says:

   August 10, 2012 at 5:33 am

   I know you were trying to point out the word ‘coal’ coming out of the mouth of Jimmy Carter. So I’ll say this—is he part of the death trains of coal that Jim Hansen talks about?

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4. Me says:

   August 10, 2012 at 6:26 am

   OPEC was the origional Enron Me guesses…..

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5. Jason Calley says:

   August 10, 2012 at 11:57 am

   One of the reasons why oil is continually on the “Oh, no! We are almost out!” list is because of the market structure — and note that I am neither complaining nor approving, just noting. Oil production and refining is by nature something that does not lend itself well to small Mom and Pop decentralization. It takes a large business to stay in petroleum production, hence there is a cartel of major oil producing nations that has the ability to greatly influence world prices. It is to their advantage, price wise, to promote the idea that oil is increasingly scarce and difficult to get commodity. Heck, I don’t know, this time they may even be telling the truth that we are finally running out (though I doubt it). What is equally true is that it is also to their advantage to make sure that they supply oil at a price just barely under that which would make alternative sources of energy economically advantageous. Is the price of solar (or wind or nuclear or whatever) getting close to a break even point? Cut the cost of oil just a bit to keep petroleum the best choice. A less ethical alternative approach (especially for cheap nuclear) is for oil producers to buy enough prohibitive legislation to prevent people from constructing reactors. Either way, producers find it in their self interest to maximize profits by simultaneously promoting both the idea that oil is running out and also by keeping it as the cheapest form of energy.

   But are we running out of oil? I have old books saying that from the 1930s, but we haven’t run out yet. It still remains the cheapest, most convenient form of energy.

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6. Amino Acids in Meteorites says:

   August 10, 2012 at 2:21 pm

   I know.let’s do this: let’s TRY to run out of oil!

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   • Eric Simpson says:

     August 10, 2012 at 5:08 pm

     We couldn’t run out of oil even if we tried!
     God knows O and his Secretary of Anti-Energy Stephen Chu has tried. Well, actually, if O got full control of the reins of govt, he probably would succeed. And though we think that with an R congress maybe we’ll be ok with an O reelection, but O may push the limits of his executive orders and the EPA in an effort to make “climate change the priority” for his second term. Probably O would succeed in a second term: Chu wants gas at $10 a gallon. Don’t believe it: he said so. Google it. O wants electricity prices to skyrocket, probably to $2 per kilowatt hour which is nearly 16 times current prices and would cause a lot of people not to be able to afford electricity anymore. Seriously. Don’t believe it: he said so. Google it.

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7. Ben says:

   August 10, 2012 at 4:49 pm

   I’m looking for an historically accurate “global proven oil reserves by year” chart or table. Does anyone have a link? http://wakeupfromyourslumber.com/blog/aletho-news/global-proven-oil-reserves-have-increased-33-over-two-decades

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   • Eric Simpson says:

     August 10, 2012 at 6:36 pm

     Ben, your link makes another point confirming that the peak oilists have been fully full of it. Peak oilers, who are typically also the most ardent and bullshit filled warmists, would have certainly maintained a decade ago that we will see steadily declining reserves year after year, but estimated reserves have in reality gone up. Kind of smacks of all the bs warmist predictions about sea level, ice levels, and temperatures. And it smacks of the climate clowns’ “expert” computer models that have not made a single correct prediction! True, google it and try to find just one climate model prediction that has come true. And kind of like all their predictions of doom; the peddlers of fear have come up empty (wrong) on every single child-scaring prediction.
     “Entire nations could be wiped off the face of the Earth by rising sea levels if the global warming trend is not reversed by the year 2000. Coastal flooding and crop failures would create an exodus of “eco-refugees,” threatening political chaos.” -Noel Brown (1989), ex UNEP Director
     “This cooling has already killed hundreds of thousands of people. If it continues and no strong action is taken, it will cause world famine, world chaos and world war, and this could all come about before the year 2000.” -Lowell Ponte in “The Cooling”, 1976
     “Rather than seeing [climate] models as describing literal truth, we ought to see them as convenient fictions which try to provide something useful [propaganda].” -David Frame, climate modeler, Oxford U

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8. Ben says:

   August 10, 2012 at 6:08 pm

   See pgs 22 and 23

   http://www.opec.org/opec_web/static_files_project/media/downloads/publications/ASB2010_2011.pdf

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