Is the world awash in oil?

There is a growing consensus among world oil experts that the planet has an abundance of oil

While there’s still an argument about oil’s long-term future, there’s no denying the evidence of newly abundant oil.

In November 2007, Brazil announced a massive offshore discovery of five billion to eight billion barrels of oil. A year later, oil major BP confirmed a Gulf of Mexico discovery of three billion barrels.

It was in 2008, too, that major oil producers finally began bidding on Iraqi oil leases, in the belief that oilfields long neglected by the late Saddam Hussein hold between six billion and 12 billion barrels of oil.

On Jan. 22 this year, the U.S. Geological Survey declared Venezuela’s heavy-oil reserves are double what was previously thought, or a stunning 513 billion barrels. That’s almost twice Saudi Arabia’s estimated remaining reserves of 267 billion barrels.

It’s nearly three times Canada’s 178 billion barrels