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10 Questions for Al Gore.

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jkoci said:
Almost half used up mainly in the last century. We could burn up the rest in less than that at current rates of usage.

World Oil Reserves Fell for First Time in 10 Years, BP Says - Bloomberg.com
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As oil prices go up, extraction of more difficult sites becomes economically attractive.

Edward L. Morse, an energy official in Carter's State Department, writes in Foreign Affairs that the world's deep-water oil and gas reserves are significantly larger than was thought a decade ago, and high prices have spurred development of technologies -- a drilling vessel can cost $1 billion -- for extracting them. The costs of developing oil sands -- Canada may contain more oil than Saudi Arabia -- are declining, so projects that last year were not economic with the price of oil under $90 a barrel are now viable with oil at $79 a barrel.



Morse says new technologies are also speeding development of natural gas trapped in U.S. shale rock. The Marcellus Shale, which stretches from West Virginia through Pennsylvania and into New York, "may contain as much natural gas as the North Field in Qatar, the largest field ever discovered."
Rattie says that known U.S. reserves of natural gas, which are sure to become larger, exceed 100 years of supply at the current rate of consumption. BP recently announced a "giant" oil discovery beneath the Gulf of Mexico. Yergin, writing in Foreign Policy, says "careful examination of the world's resource base . . . indicates that the resource endowment of the planet is sufficient to keep up with demand for decades to come."

The point of the first post was that experts have been prediction the demise of oil for a century or so, and they have been proven wrong over and over again. So BP now says 'proven reserves' have gone down--the same way the government said in 1926. Why should we believe them this time? Next week we'll hear reports of 'the biggest find ever' and off we go again.

Please understand that I still believe we should conserve energy as much as possible. But this is not as much a conservation issue as it is a political one.
 
Schuyler said:
Morse says new technologies are also speeding development of natural gas trapped in U.S. shale rock. The Marcellus Shale, which stretches from West Virginia through Pennsylvania and into New York, "may contain as much natural gas as the North Field in Qatar, the largest field ever discovered." Rattie says that known U.S. reserves of natural gas, which are sure to become larger, exceed 100 years of supply at the current rate of consumption.
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Very true. That amount of gas could be just the ticket for us. Unfortunately the new horizontal drilling/fracking technology could cause ground water pollution problems. Here is an article from my local paper. The issue is being intensely debated in my community. According to the article some people ended up with excess methane in their tap water making it undrinkable.

Sullivan County would do well to look at Pennsylvania experience with fracking | recordonline.com
 
Schuyler said:
The point of the first post was that experts have been prediction the demise of oil for a century or so, and they have been proven wrong over and over again. So BP now says 'proven reserves' have gone down--the same way the government said in 1926. Why should we believe them this time? Next week we'll hear reports of 'the biggest find ever' and off we go again.
Click to expand...

Good points again. Who knows where we really stand. Oil has tremendous energy density. Nothing else can match it. We will be using is for decades to come whether we like it or not. Maybe over that time another fuel source can be developed. Some say anhydrous ammonia may be next.

Welcome to Ammonia Fuel Network (AFN)
 
Schuyler said:
t
The point of the first post was that experts have been prediction the demise of oil for a century or so, and they have been proven wrong over and over again.
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The experts also tell us to hurry up and get our 'Shamwows' and 'Snuggies' "while supplies last." Fear boosts profits. If oil is fossil-based, how the heck did it get to be under 10,000 feet of ocean and 9000 feet of earth? Were there dinosaurs on Titan, the moon of Saturn? It appears to have many times more liquid hydrocarbons than Earth.
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jkoci said:
Where would that be? Do you have any information on the geology of that area? Maybe this is what you are referring to.

Brazil reports massive oil discovery
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Extreme Engineering: The Deepest Oil Well | Popular Science
Here's a source that claims the Russians have found it deeper than 40,000 ft.

Abiotic Oil -- Reserves Replenished by Process in Earth's Mantle?
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skunkape said:
Here's a source that claims the Russians have found it deeper than 40,000 ft.
Abiotic Oil -- Reserves Replenished by Process in Earth's Mantle?
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Thanks for the informative link. I found an interesing counter to abiotic oil here. As with most of this I'm not sure what to believe.

The Daily Duck: Debunking the "Abiotic" Theory of Petroleum Formation

Never heard of this site until I found the above link.

Whiskey and Gunpowder features articles on gold, oil, currencies, energy, emerging markets, profits and freedom.
 
Maybe we should actually be focused on ways to manually raise the temperature more to avoid another ice-age. Move the corn-belt to Canadia...won't hurt my feelings.
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