Posted on 02/07/2026 4:14:41 AM PST by Duke C.
As of recent data (reflecting 2024-2025 estimates):Proven global crude oil reserves are around 1.77 trillion barrels (or approximately 1,765 billion barrels). At current consumption levels (roughly equivalent to recent production of about 100-103 million barrels per day), this equates to about 47 years of reserves left.
This figure comes from sources like Worldometer, which bases it on 2025 reserve data and 2024 consumption levels.
(Excerpt) Read more at x.com ...
i’ve been reading grokless versions of “we have only X oil reserves remaining” for 50 years with the implication that the world will end then ... BUT, massive NEW reserves keep being discovered ...
and then there’s coal; grok sez:
“The known (proved or proven) reserves of coal could theoretically power the world for around 130–140 years at current global consumption rates”
i’ve been reading grokless versions of “we have only X oil reserves remaining” for 50 years with the implication that the world will end then ... BUT, massive NEW reserves keep being discovered ...
It doesn’t matter if new oil and gas are being created, if we are using at a higher rate.
Newly discovered reserves will come on line, consumption levels will change, etc.
—
Old wells refill
Stolen
1) Oil wells do not refill. If oil is being created all the time abiotically, we have never found it in fields that were emptied. Look up Plug and Abandon. Oil services companies have entire departments devoted to capping oil wells that were drained to empty. It does happen and it is the norm. And after 100+ years you can rest assured a few caps were opened to see if any oil reappeared. With the exception of 2 wells out of literally thousands capped around the world, no oil ever reappeared, and it was found that those 2 did not refill. They drained some oil from adjacent rock next to other wells not yet empty.
2) No, going deeper doesn’t find more oil. Oil are hydrocarbon chains of considerable length. Compared to methane which is CH4. The deeper you go, the hotter it is. As heat becomes extreme, those long chains break down to CH4. You don’t find more oil deeper. You find less.
3) When an oil field is going empty, it does not maintain production rate right up to the day of zero. So this AI stuff in this article used 102 million barrels/day as global production and that was the denominator divided into a reserves estimate. Then it said 47 yrs. That’s not how it works. When reserves get lower and lower and lower, pressure in those fields reduces and presto, so does production rate. We may demand 102 million bpd, but that doesn’t mean it gets delivered. Output from dying fields doesn’t maintain a number right up to day of zero. It declines.
4) Which means you don’t have to go empty to have societal destruction. You only have to have decline in available oil. Which is inevitable.
I heard that 47 years ago.
Exactly right.
Gen.Blather: "Raise the price sufficiently and suddenly there’s new technology, new techniques and it makes sense to find better extraction mechanisms for “played out” fields.
If the price got high enough and there really was no new oil, you can bet that we’d find an alternative."
Bingo!
Long before oil runs out, rising prices will force alternative energies, notably things like electric powered vehicles, tools & heating.
More electricity will be generated by nuclear, solar, geothermal & non-oil fuels like gas & coal.
Oil will be phased out gradually, provided there are no sudden major disruptions in supply causing economic panic and depression.
This planet is full of carbon based life, it dies, and recycles for our usage. As long as the circle of life keeps on having a termination point, there will be fuel from the ground.
I plan on being alive, only going to be 120 by then.
I started working in the oil and gas industry in 1977. As I recall, we had less remaining production time then than we do now. For the last 50 years converting resources to reserves is an economic decision and discovery action. Most people don’t understand the difference in resources and reserves. The difference is basically money invested to convert resources to active and producible reserves or to find new resources and convert them to reserves.
If people have trouble understanding resources vs. reserves the fact that we will run out of rate long before we ever run out of either resources or reserves just blows their little minds.
Oil is abiotic. We will not run out but the threat of such keeps the price up.
Yes, it can be done, and could have been started perhaps forty years ago. The microwave technology is known and close to being proven.
What stops beamed power is how to keep the beam on target reliably enough to avoid causing havoc when it strays.
That seems to be close to the limit of current human longevity. Oldest documented person was a woman who made it to 122 and she died in 1997. Currently oldest still living woman is 116 and man is 113. US record for a man is 115. source was wiki
Green River Formation!!!”The Green River Formation, spanning Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming, contains an estimated 3 to 4.3 trillion barrels of oil in-place, representing the world’s largest oil shale deposit. While up to 50% (roughly 1.5 trillion barrels) may be technically recoverable, high extraction costs and environmental challenges mean commercial, large-scale production is not currently viable.”
Doing nuclear fusion in orbit and beaming down the energy? Sounds like something from the 60’s Superman comics.
Fusion is only 5 years away, and has been for the last 50 years.
CC
Maybe use large draft animals to pull us around in carts?
Long ago
” We are not going to run out of oil in 47 years. “
Totally Correct.
I’ve been told by (Midland, Texas) Geologists and Petroleum Engineers that we have 3-400 years of reserve.
I suspect more unknown sources will come on line and the number is longer than calculated.
And more than likely, the nuclear power system will be the solution.
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