What will happen when the cheaper oil runs out?

With oil now flirting with the $100-a-barrel mark, the question arises: Will there always be more oil?

As it turns out, most experts in the field now believe that the world is a long way from running out of oil in the ground. But the ability to extract that oil may be nearing its limit.


The Wall Street Journal this week quoted experts from across the industry who say there is a growing acknowledgement that the industry may hit a plateau of oil production in the next five to 20 years.

Because of the limits of technology, international politics, the difficulty of extracting oil from some extreme locations and aging oil fields, the world production of oil may hit somewhere around 100 million barrels a day and be unable to produce more.

That’s a sobering statement considering that present production is 85 million barrels a day and the demand from the United States and other major industrial nations, as well as emerging economies like China and India, is pressing that supply to the limit.

The Caller-Times (Corpus Christi, Texas)