Hippiekinkster -> RE: Gas prices (2/19/2008 12:56:35 AM)
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Having spent over 10 years in the research side of the petroleum industry in Houston (tiny little companies, though; Shell, Gulf, and NL Baroid), I have a little familiarity with projections of reserves. Here's some bullshit from a Saudi speaking to OPEC members in Wein, 2006: "We are looking at more than four and a half trillion barrels of potentially recoverable oil. That number translates into 140 years of oil at current rates of consumption, or to put it anther way, the world has only consumed about 18 percent of its conventional oil potential. " http://www.runet.edu/~wkovarik/oil/ Looking at this graph, it appears that global petroleum is about 85MMbpd. 3.1 billion barrels per year. Now, China and India are supposed to be REALLY increasing their consumption. Well, let's be conservative. A 5% increase per year. So consumption would double in 14 years. The midpoint (mean) of that is about 4.65 billion bpy. consumption over the first decade is 4.65 x 14 = 65.1 billion barrels. The second decade is 9.3 billion bpy, average. Consumption is 9.3 x 14 = 130.2 billion bpy. 3rd decade is 260 bpy. 4th decade is 520 bpy. 5th decade is 1040 bpy. 6th decade, 2080. By now we've used up about 4.1 trillion of that 4.5 trillion barrels. That's assuming the estimates are correct (doubtful) and all that oil is recoverable (doubtful). Now, here is a report estimating world production falling by half by 2030, and social unrest/wars resulting (which we are already experiencing). http://www.guardian.co.uk/oil/story/0,,2196435,00.html#article_continue
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