I recently read an article that brought a new perspective to oil
depletion. This article looked at the declining oil reserves from the
standpoint of the about of energy needed to extract the oil. Two measures
of our reserves are the amount of oil still in the ground and the amount of
oil to found. As we all know at some point the remaining oil becomes very
expensive because the low reserves will be visible to all and it will go to
the highest bidder.
The article pointed out that this reserve is not a true number. The true
end of the oil reserve comes when the energy cost of extraction equals the
amount of energy extracted. In other words when it costs one barrel of oil
to extract one barrel of oil, that particular reserve is finished no matter
how much oil remains.
The end is not all that far away as we are now probing well below
5000'. How much energy does it cost to puncture a hole that deep, keep
that hole open, move several tons of oil up that hole, then move those
same tons to where it can be processed. I have read in other places that
currently half the oil pumped in the middle east is used to pump the oil
then move it to processing facilities and ultimately to the customer in
the US. The net result is that the end is nearer than the number suggest.
>We seem to be stuck in outdated modes of thought and
>afraid to face these basic facts:
>
> 1. The powerful countries are dependant on
> oil for plastics, medicines, clothing,
> pesticides, paint, and much of their
> economy. This creates a high risk for
> crisis and conflict.
Is is not so much the oil but what oil touches. For example a major
problem in the world today is clean water. Much of the middle east
conflict is over water. Without oil, clean gravity flow water becomes much
more important that deep well water.
Don Bowen [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Valley Center, CA Senior Software Engineer
http://members.cts.com/crash/d/donb
http://www.oldengine.org/members/ihc14
http://www.oldengine.org/members/ferguson/
http://www.corvair.org/chapters/chapter920/
