Peak Oil?

[OzJavelin]

Anyone watch Catalyst on ABC last night? Interesting doomsayer article about "peak-oil". I actually thought it had a lot of technical substance (being someone outside the oil industry). A bit scary though; reaching peak-oil in about 3years and all goes into decline after that. Really makes me wonder if everyone is asleep-at-the-wheel regarding development of alternative energy sources. We all seem a bit dumb-fat-and-happy about oil and only complain when the price of petrol goes up. What happens when it dries up.
I feel depressed now .. might just stop watching TV

[Well .. if it's all going to hell I might just keep driving my five V8s with the radio blaring and be happy up to the end! ]

Rod.

[4.9 EF Futura]

Ive had a very keen interest in the theory of peak oil for some time now. It certainly is a scary concept. I didnt actually see the show on ABC last night.

In my opinion - the question is not wether the theory is sound. The question is - when will oil peak? You may have seen the Chevron adds being played recently. This was seen as an important move my the peak oil movement as until now, oil companies have completely dismissed the theory... it's a big thing for an energy producer to come out and talk about reaching 50% of the world's oil supply.

Dont worry about drving V8s - im not sure if they went into Jevon's paradox but it basically states the more you try and save oil - the quicker it ends up being used!!!

Here are some resources on the topic. I'd encourage anyone to have a read and see what you think.

If you thought you were scared now - have a read of this one and see the analysis on alternative fuels. Also read the impacts on economic growth and therefore the entire banking and financial system. Very depressing:

http://www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net/Index.html

And the association of peak oil - always something new being put up here:

http://www.peakoil.net/

[henry 351]

Everyone knows oil can be made synthetically, so can petrol. The Germans were using synthetic petrol back in World War 2. So if oil runs out, it can be made, but at what cost???

It's scarey how much of the worlds economy is geared around oil and fuel.

The poms are sitting on a bit though, saving it for a rainy day. Remember the Falklands Islands conflict with Argentina? Well apparently those little islands in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean are sitting on a massive untapped oil reserve, property of Her Majesty. You didn't think they would fight for some penguin poo covered rock in the middle of nowhere for nothing....

I wonder how much undiscovered or untapped oil there is. Its what the fight modern wars for I suppose.

[Syndrome]

13 years after this thread was started and we are no closer to peak oil.

http://abcnews.go.com/International/...rrels-54226857

[CJR09]

Shale oil though isn't it harder to extract = higher cost?

[Syndrome]

Originally Posted by CJR09

Shale oil though isn't it harder to extract = higher cost?

Yes but it is oil nevertheless. There is lots of it out there but either difficult to reach or extract.

[Sprintey]

Originally Posted by henry 351

Everyone knows oil can be made synthetically, so can petrol. The Germans were using synthetic petrol back in World War 2. So if oil runs out, it can be made, but at what cost???

It's scarey how much of the worlds economy is geared around oil and fuel.

The poms are sitting on a bit though, saving it for a rainy day. Remember the Falklands Islands conflict with Argentina? Well apparently those little islands in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean are sitting on a massive untapped oil reserve, property of Her Majesty. You didn't think they would fight for some penguin poo covered rock in the middle of nowhere for nothing....

I wonder how much undiscovered or untapped oil there is. Its what the fight modern wars for I suppose.

Overnight news has Bahrain discovering 80Bn barrels of reserves as shale.

& yes UK is putting new QE class aircraft carriers in the water now, any future Falklands taskforce will have considerably more punch than 1982. They suffered badly for neglecting fixed wing aviation in '82 (Ark Royal had been paid off only 3 years prior and with her went the Phantoms, it was a miracle they had the Harriers and Invincible/Hermes at all...)

My 2c - yes there are more reserves being found, but they are harder to get to, harder to process, big environmental mess in getting them. EROEI is the 'peak' phenomenon - that is, the energy obtained from the effort of processing it is going down. As EROEI lessens, societal complexity will diminish, for the complexity of our society & all the wonderful things rests on abundant easy-to-harness energy.

We are seeing US shale drillers surviving on very cheap funding, keeping them pumping where perhaps they would not at market-set rates of interest.

If you look fuel itself, the 98 mixes have high % of BTEX chemicals to add to the octane, I read that this is occuring as the quality of underlying fuel has less octane. If anyone is a petroleum engineer, Would be happy to be corrected on this.

But yeah its EROEI that is the peak phenomenon.

PS still need energy to mine and process that lithium battery, solar panel, wind turbine...

PPS the amount of energy in plastic pollutants is incredible. The world and its oceans are inundated with these high energy-storing toxic waste. A movement has begun to recover fuel from them. I calculated 20 plastic milk containers = 1L of petrol recovered...

PPPS - US Navy has successfully obtained carbon from seawater and refined it into aviation fuel.

[au350hp]

Greed is the problem. Nothing more. Half the worlds wealth is owned by 1% of the population. A select few control the worlds media. Our current markets are all geared, as always, to make huge profits for a minority. Until we rethink the distribution of wealth, there is no chance we will ever give up our obsession with oil & petrol. The warning signs have been around for over 50 years, all the technology is there too but the current powerbrokers don't want to share. This is but one of so many massive issues facing us all.

[au350hp]

I wonder how much undiscovered or untapped oil there is. Its what the fight modern wars for I suppose.[/QUOTE]

All the worlds riches have always been a source of corruption, power & greed as history has shown. The game never changes, only the players & they all have the same interests. Look at the cost of utilities in this country today compared to 5 & 10 years ago. Now look at wage growth for the same period. Only those in positions of power & those in the public service have experienced any wage increases and huge pensions. There is your answer.

[cheap]

Anytime real soon now the world will be inundated with electric cars and the issue of peak oil will become a non-event. Just ask Elon.

[GO FURTHER]

Bill Gates recently said in his future World predictions that a new source of renewable energy will be invented or discovered in the next 10 years that will power most of the World’s energy needs.

[au350hp]

Who knows. We may be discussing the best water cooling systems for our nuclear powered cars down the track

[solarite_guy]

Captain, the dialithium crystals are about to blow.

[marty351]

Got me thinking about warp engine possibility.

[commodorenutt]

Originally Posted by cheap

Anytime real soon now the world will be inundated with electric cars and the issue of peak oil will become a non-event. Just ask Elon.

They'l need to burn that oil to power all the new "dirty" power stations needed in a hurry to feed the charging network. Futile effort. Simply shifting tailpipe emissions, and still burning fossil fuels....

[Maka]

Interesting link from Forbes Energy (March 3 2017) -

"Oil is more plentiful than you can imagine. And we keep figuring out easier and more economical ways to get it out of the ground.

But certainly, Peak Oil is not in sight, and its promise to alter energy policy and decrease petroleum use will not be a force for some time".
(With thanks to James Conca & Forbes Energy)

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesco...-or-the-world/

cheers, Maka

[jpd80]

Middle East and OPEC is deliberately vague about actual oil reserves because
It wants doubt in the minds of everyone so that it can charge as much as possible.

Any attempt to squeeze more than $70/barrel out of buyers will result in Shale Oil
taking the cream off the top of sales. Anything OPEC does now to strengthen prices
only strengthens alternatives to conventional oil reserves, be that shale oil or electrification.

[Maka]

Originally Posted by jpd80

Middle East and OPEC is deliberately vague about actual oil reserves because
It wants doubt in the minds of everyone so that it can charge as much as possible.

Any attempt to squeeze more than $70/barrel out of buyers will result in Shale Oil
taking the cream off the top of sales. Anything OPEC does now to strengthen prices
only strengthens alternatives to conventional oil reserves, be that shale oil or electrification.

Bingo!!

cheers, Maka

[dunga]

Originally Posted by GO FURTHER

Bill Gates recently said in his future World predictions that a new source of renewable energy will be invented or discovered in the next 10 years that will power most of the World’s energy needs.

Already have its called hydrogen .On a side note I am surprised anyone watches the abc anymore it has become a joke my bet is the abc will be gone before peak oil occurs.

[Maka]

Originally Posted by dunga

Already have its called hydrogen .On a side note I am surprised anyone watches the abc anymore it has become a joke my bet is the abc will be gone before peak oil occurs.

Start a new thread if you want about the ABC, your not the only one outraged by the current situation there imo..

cheers, Maka

[Blue Roo]

Originally Posted by Maka

Interesting link from Forbes Energy (March 3 2017) -

"Oil is more plentiful than you can imagine. And we keep figuring out easier and more economical ways to get it out of the ground.

But certainly, Peak Oil is not in sight, and its promise to alter energy policy and decrease petroleum use will not be a force for some time".
(With thanks to James Conca & Forbes Energy)

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesco...-or-the-world/

cheers, Maka

This is True.
As the drilling technology gets more advanced. The drillers can go back to the old disused wells and can extract the oil in a more efficient way. That is cost effective.

Also in the U.S. Oil drillers have gone back to some of the old dried up wells. And they have found that the crude oil has started to refill back into the old wells.

[zipping]

Originally Posted by Syndrome

13 years after this thread was started and we are no closer to peak oil.

http://abcnews.go.com/International/...rrels-54226857

Peak oil was all the rage when i was at Uni in the late 80's. Did an eco degree in 1999 and it was still the rage.

Just another BS academic theory that never panned out. If you did a search of academic papers there would be 10s of thousands predicting doom and gloom.....now what deos that remind me of

[Sprintey]

Oil refilling wells, oh my. Maybe the Russian Academy of Sciences were right...

[ipn]

Peek oil is like the Diamond Industry imo

If the DI released all the stored Diamonds at once glass playing Marbles would end up being dearer .

There are big fibs imo on what and where and the amount of reserves that are actually around , solely to keep the scare factor up and of course the price but its really about "Control" .

Paul .

(all you have to do is look around on google earth at the land masses and take notice on the barren types and guess what was there 100's of millions of years ago , and thats only the visible lot not underneath the oceans)

[b0son]

Peak oil is hardly BS... it's a finite resource. The BS comes from the oil companies and how big their reserves are.

What's idiotic is that its been decades since climate change/global warming scare-mongering first hit, and still science is overly pre-occupied with working out who is to blame and how long it will take, NOT how we can respond by producing a renewable resource from the CO2 we pump out. There was some awesome research a decade or so ago turning CO2 into petrol, yet we still seem to be no closer to implementing this tech. Instead, we're rushing in to making batteries, like lithium is never going to run out....

[Maka]

Here's another enlightening & interesting link in trying to get the full picture -

http://www.resilience.org/stories/20...ak-oil-debate/

cheers, Maka

[zipping]

just goes to show never argue with an academic they are always right.

Except for the fact they hyped this as a major issue where we had to change our ways or the economy would be destroyed.

The argument that things are finite and will run out reminds me of the bet

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon%...3Ehrlich_wager

just reading that wiki its amazing they so want Ehrlich to be right but but but completely missing the point that the bet was made with greatest doomsayer of that time and he was wrong.