Posted on 03/02/2017 4:08:34 PM PST by Brad from Tennessee
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.
In 1938, the famous geologist M. King Hubbert came up with the concept of peak oil, which is defined as having extracted half of the recoverable, conventional oil reserves. After that, oil production declines and cannot keep up with growing demand as the population continues to rise.
In Hubberts time, most of the conventional oil reserves had already been discovered. Hubbert went on to predict that U.S. production would peak in 1969, and it did appear to peak in 1970. World reserves were supposed to peak around 2010 (see figure).
However, about 20 years ago, the industry really leapt forward on the technologies to find oil and to extract it. Particularly fracking.
This changed everything.
BPs Spencer Dale summed it up nicely, For every barrel of oil consumed over the past 35 years, two new barrels have been discovered. And this shows no sign of slowing down any time soon. Peak oil has probably moved out a hundred years or more.
While we talk about decreasing our fossil fuel use, its easy to forget that humans find it really hard not to use what they have a lot of. And we have a lot of oil. And gas. And coal. In fact, the United States has more oil, gas and coal together than any other country in the world. . .
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
4th generation Thorium reactors will be online in 10 years. Hydrocarbons are irreplaceable as fuel and feedstock, but we don’t need to rely forever on the same mix as we have now.
“But there must come a point where the demand exceeds the supply.”
Why?
Not so long as prices are freely set. Price is the mechanism that balance supply and demand.
Drill Baby, Drill!
Didn’t Rube Goldberg develop something along those lines?
CA....
I had no angst this past election cycle, I knew in my gut DJT would win. However, not a single candidate the 2 on their side and the 17 on ours mentioned thorium.
IMHO it is our next moon shot. Something big to rallye behind and spring board us into a new future. PDJT has a lot on his plate cleaning up 30 years of everyone's messes. When we get to a point of sanity were we can dream big, perhaps the words Thorium Reactors will roll off his lips.
Please provide links DB. What have I missed, I haven't seen a word out of the investment community either.
Two years ago I read a book on oil exploration. The first part was on the geology of oil.
The book’s contention was that oil is the result of death of bazillions of microscopic sea creatures over millions of years, whose bodies sink to the bottom of the seas, are covered by sand & silt, slowly sinking beneath the ocean floors, heated & compressed underground, until it forms oil. Oil is not the remains of animals or dinosaurs. A similar process with decaying plants produces coal.
If this is true, & it seems a good explanation for the existence of oil, then the process continues now & for as long as the planet exists. This also implies than any area of the planet covered by the sea for long periods of time, including land that is currently above sea level, likely contains oil. Given that most areas of the planet were under water at on time or another, oil is virtually everywhere.
Another interesting theory about oil is that, being lighter & less dense that the surrounding earth & rock, oil tends to find its way to the surface. La Brea Tar pits in CA & the oils sands of Alberta are examples of this. So, whether we drill for it or not, it will still come to the surface sooner or later.
I am not surprised. And they never admit to being wrong. They just jump on the next loony liberal cause.
“Fukushima and the problems at the French reactor come to mind. “
Those are First generation reactors, we are now on fourth generation. Like comparing a Model T to a modern car fitted with airbags and saying cars are bad cause if you drive a Model T 50 years it breaks down.
Oil may be the ultimate energy storage system for the energy sun light transmits to photosynthesizers, those organism that convert sunlight, carbon dioxide, and water into carbohydrates. It is these carbohydrates that become hydrocarbon fuels.
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