SPE official sees oil and gas as ’sunrise, not sunset’ industry

“Some call us a sunset industry, like we’re over the hill,” commented Bill Cobb, who will assume the presidency of the Society of Petroleum Engineers International in November. “I say ‘Hey, we are a sunrise industry.’ I know of no other industry that utilizes higher technology than the oil and gas industry, from computers to drilling wells. We could start a well at your house, drill it five miles in any direction and it our target within 50 feet; we could hit it within 10 feet, but 50 feet is pretty good.”
He continued, “The world uses 82 to 85 million barrels of oil a day. In 1980, I remember the long gasoline lines around Dallas. At that time the world was using 60 million barrels a day and the projections were that by 2000 we’d only need 50 million barrels of oil because alternative sources of energy were just around the corner. In 2007, we’re not using 50 million barrels, we’re using 85 million barrels and by 2025 we’ll use 115 to 120 million barrels. Some of that oil will come from the Permian Basin and some from Latin America and the Gulf of Mexico. But it will also come from Nigeria, Angola, Russia. And that assumes some of the alternative sources of energy that are just around the corner will blossom.”

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