How Much Oil Is Left?

As the 21st Century unfolds one of the most pressing questions is how much oil is left? The world economy and our modern industrial society depends on oil. Despite fears that oil will soon run out the world is still heavily reliant on oil supplies. Other forms of energy, such as nuclear energy, solar, wind, wave and other renewable energy sources simply cannot as yet replace our reliance on oil.

Oil is something that is provided to us as a natural resource that took millions of years to form and is in finite supply. Marine deposits over millions of years resulted in the formation of oil out of fossil fuels and once the oil runs out it cannot be replaced or replenished.

Who control the oil is of vital political and economic importance.  A lot of disputes have already been raised about the of oil control of oil supply and prices. It is now a generation since the formation of the OPEC oil cartel in the 1970 lead to a quadrupling of the price of crude oil. This lead to the price of petrol at the pump rising sky high and bringing about a world recession. Disputes that arise raised between countries arise over the supply and price of oil and can have profound affects upon the economies of the world, and especailly the industrial sectors of the economy that rely heavily on cheap energy supply.

The question that certainly has raised the minds of many great people across the world is how much oil is left? But before we can address that question there are certain very important things that must also be kept in mind. It is very important for everyone to understand the importance of oil and to remember that oil formation takes millions of years and that the eventual extinction of oil supplies inevitable.

Where the question of how much oil is left arise?

Firstly, it is very important to understand how important that oil is to all of us. With the evolution of the use of fossil fuels, the introduction of the reliance on oil came to everyone. We now depend on oil in all its different forms from petrol in the gas tank, to the manufacture of plastics. This question of how much oil is left is important because of the simple reason that oil will inevitably run out one day. If no one ever thinks about what happens when oil supplies run out how will we be able to prepare for that inevitable event? The end of oil supplies will surely result in something that is going to be truly huge and devastating unless alternative energy sources are developed to replace oil. Without oil the economic and transportation systems of the world will grind to a halt. There will be no transportation and the world economy would collapse.  Growth in the economies of developing countries like India and China are leading to rapid increase in the use of oil, that is hastening the decline in oil reserves. It is easy to see how that the question of how much oil is left is also a vital and problematic question for all countries from he established industrialized nations like the United States through to emerging economies like China.

What do the figures say about how much oil is left?

This is hard question to be provided an exact answer to because we simply do not know how much oil is left in the world. Despite geological testing and the latest computer modelling predictions no one can accurately answer the question of how much oil is left.  New oil reserves are still being found and old discoveries that were once beyond our technological expertise are now being successfully exploited, for example oil is now being extracted from ocean depths that were once inaccessible. Estimates of how much oil is left range from 30 to 100 years supply. One thing is certain, however, and that is that one day the oil will run out and we need to plan for that inevitable day.

How Much Oil Is Left?