The peak of world oil discovery reached it's highest levels ever in 1965 at 55 billion barrels per year. Since that time discovery has dropped off to roughly between 15 and 20 billion barrels per year- and that's including unconventional sources such as the Alberta Tar Sands. With the former third world rapidly industrializing, and consumption in the first world increasing, there is a growing gap between the amount of oil being discovered and the demand for oil.
In other words, we want more than we are finding. And what we are finding is not as good at what we used to find.
The earliest oil production was centered around liquid crude oil, the kind that bubbles up from the ground or can be pumped from the ground. Much of the current oil development centers around what are called unconventional oil sources, such as oil locked in bituminous rocks: ie. oil shale and oil sands, such as the deposits found in Northern Alberta, Canada.
Because the oil must be separated from the shale or sands before it can be used, the extraction process for unconventional oil sources is considerably higher than conventional oil. For this reason, these sources were never developed in the past when oil prices were low. They are being developed only now, not because of recent discovery, but because the price of oil has finally risen consistently high enough to make the process profitable.
In other words, when you hear a heroin addict talking about how amazing methadone is, you can safely assume that he has run out of heroin.
--See the rest of the article here at Squidoo
No comments:
Post a Comment