End of oil: End of another human era

The oil era seems to end in several decades from today, whilst the world markets are experiencing an upward trend in the energy price index. Moreover the consumption of fossil fuel is accelerating due to the growth of the Asian economies and in Eurasia the Russian corporations are eager in controlling most of the energy flow to Europe.

The worldwide oil consumption has increased some 25% over the past decade more than 85 million barrels of oil are needed to meet the daily needs of the globe. With the present consumption rates the oil era will end in less than 40 years. This can be calculated by the fact that the total known reserves amount around 1, 2 trillion barrels. Further, the reserves are distributed unequally in the different geographical zones of the earth, and that means that some countries will experience a shortage much sooner than others.

The oil price has already reached $111.5 and it remains to be seen if it is going to stabilize at even higher price. By taking into account that 40% of energy consumption derives from oil; Western governments already predict a slower growth with and as much as 0.5% of GDP lost in the coming year. Moreover the combination of increased consumption (By India-China), the upward pressure by the options & derivatives market, the weakening of the Dollar and the diminishing reserves, create an explosive situation that can erupt in the future and lay the basis of a world economic crisis.

The greater Middle East region still reigns with the largest oil fields and some other countries like Venezuela, Russia, and Nigeria can be said to form the foundation of the production markets. On the other hand the five largest petroleum corporations (Exxon-Mobil, Shell, BP, Chevron, and Total) made more than $120 billion of profits in total last year, of which 39.5 billion were Exxon-Mobil