Running Out Of Oil

[Dan Moadus]

Let's also not forget that oil is a renewable resource. Nature didn't produce a bunch of it a few million years ago and quit.  Oil is being produced continually, and anyone who thinks they can predict how much there is, is just kidding themselves.

[Towntalk]

I'm reminded of all the doomsday programs aired on the History Channel and History International. The only problem is that the disasters aren't to be released upon our planet for at least a billion years unless you're a believer in the 2012 Doomsday scenario.

[Youngstownshrimp]

Rick, the true market is already upon us. 

It took me awhile to figure out what is going on locally in regards to the Marcellus which I was one of the first to tout.  Most of the leases and the actual drilling has been for the shallow Clinton wells such as the recent Scarsella well on market.  The Clinton leases are not very high paying and now we hear about the new shale which is greater than the Marcellus, the Utica which eastern Ohio is blessed with.  As we speak, all the eyes of the industry are on a large drill in North Jackson drilling for the Utica, 8500' down. 

The leases being secured for the Clinton type wells are a means to lease cheaply and then they will be flipped to the behemoths of the oil and gas industry, for a killing.

[Rick Rowlands]

The true market for alternate energy is not here yet.  There is an artificial market for it created by government, but when the true market emerges just step back and watch what private enterprise will come up with.  That is if government hasn't beaten all of the entrepreneurs into the ground by then.

Americans started with a huge swath of vacant land, and on that land built the greatest civilization the world has ever known.  Do you really think Americans will just let their energy supplies run out and be content to sit in the dark and freeze to death? 

[irishbobcat]

The global oil supply is set to run dry 90 years before replacements such as renewable energy are ready to satisfy the same amount of demand, according to University of California Davis researchers.Current policies that set targets for batteries, hydrogen, biofuel and other alternative energy sources won't be enough, a new study says.Deb Niemeier, a professor of civil and environmental engineering, and postdoctoral researcher Nataliya Malyshkina examined existing public companies dealing in non-oil fuels such as BlueFire Ethanol Inc. of Irvine, Calif., and Enova Systems Inc. (AMEX:ENA) of Torrance, Calif.The technologies in the market "may not be able to occupy a sufficient enough niche in the market by the time we need them to," Niemeier said in an e-mail.The pair looked at activity from long-term investors as a predictor of whether and when the burgeoning technologies would go mainstream. They also considered the value and dividends of public companies in both the oil and alternative energy markets.There are many predictions of when oil could run out, but also many, many factors that could feed into a timeline for depletion," Niemeier wrote. "For example, whether consumption patterns stay at the level, whether new [oil] fields are found, how much technology improves for harvesting less accessible or economic fields now, and so forth."The research appeared in the journal Environmental Science and Technology.__