Oil reserves not running out anytime soon

It is not possible to calculate when the world’s oil supply will run dry exactly because of this: Reserves are constantly in motion along with technology and the market. The world oil production steadily has been increasing since the early 1900s.

As such, the price of gasoline today is significantly cheaper than the previous 150 years – if inflation is accounted for.
More interesting, however, is the fact that estimates of the world’s oil have increased more rapidly than our production. As mentioned before, this is possible because of new technology and market prices, which whenever scarcity is suggested, rapidly employ new exploration and development. Running out of oil? We are running straight into it.

Many believe an economy built on oil is not sustainable. While it is true, an economy built on oil in the long run is not sustainable, sustainability is extremely misleading. No technology since the dawn of our existence has been sustainable; all of it has been replaced by newer and more efficient technology.

How long will oil last? Predicting the future on our current reserves is impossible. At the moment, the world has enough reserves to last another 100 years. Yet, 100 years into the future is so far, it would be asinine to attempt to predict what our descendants will be using as energy.

All of the current estimations for oil do not include unconventional oil resources. The tar sands in Canada and South America would add about 600 billion barrels to the world’s supply. Colorado, Utah and Wyoming alone contain 1.5 trillion barrels of oil. Worldwide, the oil-shale reserves could be as large as 14 trillion barrels – more than 500 years of oil supply at year 2000 production rates.

Daily Toreador