[Dr. Sivana]

From Perplexity.ai:

If you’re asking about U.S. proved oil reserves in 1980, historical sources show the United States had, by one common accounting method, roughly 30 to 40 billion barrels of proved crude oil reserves around that era, with estimates varying by source and calculation method.

Proved crude oil reserves in the United States were roughly in the neighborhood of several tens of billions of barrels in the 1990s, with annual figures fluctuating due to discoveries, revisions, and economic/technological changes.

When we need it, we find it.

[ETCM]

“Proved” = easily recovered. There is likely much more oil reserves waiting to be found and “proved” in the USA, but only with a government that supports developing our petroleum resources.

Much of our oil, including some active wells, falls in the “recoverable” category. That is oil that is recoverable with current technology, vs “Proven” which is economically viable and certain to be produced now. The USA has the most Recoverable oil of any country on earth.

[glorgau]

The world has had 20 years of reserves for the last 100 years.

[TheThirdRuffian]

The definition of “proved” reserve is an SEC pseudoscientific definition used in public reports and banking regs.

It’s doesn’t mean “we know there is oil there”. It means “we know there is oil there recoverable at X price and within 5 years where there are actual plans to go get it.” (Nor exactly, but close enough for our purposes here.

The USA has a ridiculous amount of oil we know is there, much of which is not economical at $70 oil. When you go up to $140 oil (which can happen), we’re a massive producer.