FEOS
Bellicose Yankee Air Pirate
+1,182|6840|'Murka

Mek-Izzle wrote:

FEOS wrote:

Also, nearly 3/4 of most oil companies' profits go right back into exploration and alternate energy development...both very high risk operations.
You're right about alternate energy being high risk. You get whacked (you can interpret whacked either literally or metaphorically and it'll still make sense) by the same bastards if you try to show anything new
By high-risk, I meant sketchy technology (for broad-based production) and extremely high R&D costs.
“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”
― Albert Einstein

Doing the popular thing is not always right. Doing the right thing is not always popular
Phrozenbot
Member
+632|7044|do not disturb

We are running out of oil that is easily pumped out of the ground. The last major oil reserve found was in the 60's as far as I know. But there are still places we can find it, just much more harder to reach and riskier. Colorado may have 3 times the oil Saudi Arabia has.
Nappy
Apprentice
+151|6658|NSW, Australia

Deadmonkiefart wrote:

Spark wrote:



We have SOME idea of how they're formed... but we don't know the exact conditions which cause it to form oil, as opposed to gas or something else.
Do you mean natural gas or gasoline?
call it petrol, then the rest of the world knows what your talking about
not gas
Burwhale
Save the BlobFish!
+136|6651|Brisneyland
Good post mate.I believe that A is more likely although no one can really know exactly when it will run out. All the major oil finds probably have been discovered. At a guess I might say we have 35 years left.

I think that oil company profits come part and parcel with increasing demand for oil and dwindling supply, its just basic economics. It sucks but its inevitable. Oil alternatives will always be around, like biodiesel, oil from coal deposits and cool inventions like this . Having said that we should be looking to survive on alternative energy ( and transport, electric cars etc). That way we will be prepared, and wont have to rely on the middle east for energy. I do have great faith in humans to sort this out.
ATG
Banned
+5,233|6958|Global Command
It seems as if those selecting " A " came into the thread with an established view.
M.O.A.B
'Light 'em up!'
+1,220|6652|Escea

I'd say there's still good amounts of Fossil fuels left, jsut it will be more expensive to extract them. Huge oil reserves in Siberia/Alaska.
PureFodder
Member
+225|6714
There is a finite amount of Oil, gas and coal and it will eventually run out. Long before we run out of them we run into the two bigger problems associated with the extraction costs of the materials. Firstly the financial costs of getting them will make their extraction and processing to burn to make energy economically unviable and secondarily you'll reach the point when it will expend more energy finding, drilling, extracting, purifying and transporting them than energy gained from burning them. At that point it's main use will be for things like feedstocks of plastics etc. whereas using it for energy production will be pointless.
CameronPoe
Member
+2,925|6984
The main issue here is that oil, like many things on this planet, is finite as PureFodder stated. The sooner we get off that black poison the better. I'm looking to Japan to make the leap forward with an economical alternative - probably the best engineers on the planet with the most hardcore work ethic in the world.

Last edited by CameronPoe (2008-02-11 08:38:55)

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