Hard to believe.
Price of oil is going up, in larhge part, because of weak dollar.
However, the cost of oil will continue to increase, $100.00 oil, $125.00 oil and within in 10 years $200.00 oil!
Oil will never run out but we will reach a point where it is not economically feasible to use oil to fuel the world.
What then, will you be willing to pay $50.00 for a gallon of gas?
There is only TWO reasons oil prices are as high as they are:
Our own governments taxation and regulations.
I agree with the title, but we really don’t know how much oil we have since we keep finding more every year.
If we have plenty of oil, then why does it cost more than $100 per barrel?
Most liekly the market for oil will disappear before the supply declines.
Methane Hydrate on our continental shelves will be a good source of BTUs in the future and there is a lot of it.
This is peak oil. It has been peak oil for several months. Peak oil has nothing to do with the factors mentioned in the article and the article has nothing to do with reality. Otherwise a fine article.
The problem is that Congress won't allow US companies to drill it, and the Chinese are already scarfing it up for themselves by slant drilling from the Cuban side of the straits and refining it in an old Soviet refinery in Cuba.
Read about it HERE
So what? The Left will never, ever, ever let us drill for it. They will destroy the economy on their way to their Marxist Paradise of us riding ox carts and bicycles while they keep a high standard of living for themselves.
I have posted about the concept of recycling atmospheric CO2 many times before, and I do believe that it will be the ultimate long-term soource of transportation fuel.
The facts of life - regarding energy for transportation.
Today we obtain more than 95% of our transportation fuel from oil, and will continue to do so as long as it makes economic sense. Locating, extracting, transporting, refining, and distributing absorb about 12% of the energy content of the crude oil entering the system, leaving 88% for end-user consumption.
Nearly 3/4 of our crude oil becomes transportation fuel, with most of the rest going to industrial uses. 60% of that 3/4 becomes gasoline for light duty vehicles, with an efficiency of about 20%. 25% is diesel for trains, trucks, and other freight movement, with about 40% efficiency. And 12% becomes aircraft fuel, with about 25% efficiency.
Light liquid hydrocarbons are the transportation fuel of choice, and will remain so indefinitely because, when burned in an oxygen atmosphere, they provide the greatest energy density available that is relatively safe and easy to handle.
When the cost of crude oil rises to the point that alternate sources are economically competitive, we will STILL be using light liquid hydrocarbons as our primary transportation “fuel”. However, instead of refining it from the heavier hydrocarbons in crude oil, we will synthesize it from other sources of carbon, hydrogen, and the energy to assemble them. In other words, it will become a SECONDARY fuel - an energy VECTOR rather than a primary source.
Hydrogen as fuel is a sick joke - a boondoggle to pacify the peasants (including Congress) while they go about their real business of selling us products we want to buy. The best way to store, transport, distribute, and consume hydrogen for energy is in the same form we use today - a mixture of light liquid hydrocarbons that we call GASOLINE. A 1-gallon tank could contain 0.568 pounds of liquid hydrogen (H2) - but at a CRITICAL temperature of -400F and a pressure of about 190 PSI. Warm it up by ONE degree and you might as well juggle hand grenades.
But fill that tank with 5.625 pounds of gasoline - exactly 1 full gallon - and you will have 0.888 pounds of hydrogen in there, at atmospheric pressure and comfortable temperatures! That is 56% MORE hydrogen in the same space, in a light, unpressurized container, that ALSO includes the energy available from burning the 5.1 pounds of carbon sharing that space. And if all you wanted was the hydrogen, it could be extracted WITHOUT additional energy. Hydrogen works for the space shuttle, where cost is no object but weight (mass, really) is critical. But even there they get it off the ground with kerosene.
Almost everything else must be converted to electricity for productive use - an inefficient process, although sometimes the waste heat can be harnessed for low-level productive purposes, such as water purification and space heating. But with minor exceptions, electricity cannot be used for transportation because extension cords just are impractical for cars, boats, and airplanes.
Two major exceptions:
Train locomotives, which are powered by electric motors. Subway trains and trolleys pick up electricity along their route from 3rd rails or overhead wires. But for unpowered rail routes, diesel-electric locomotives generate the electricity on-board with diesel generators.
And electric battery power, which is used in older submarines, and more recently, hybrid cars and trucks.
I don’t know the economics of electrifying the railroads. If it works, it would reduce our total oil consumption by about 5% by shifting it to the electric grid. But it certainly would be expensive, and take a while to accomplish.
Battery technology has improved and is improving, but there are limits on the technology. It is a form of chemical energy storage, just like gasoline, except a lot heavier and less energy dense. And in terms of effieiency, charging a battery takes about 60% more energy that can be retrieved from it. Still, it provides useful intermediate storage that allows you to shift some consumption from transportation fuel to electricity from stationary sources, including available alternate sources and what will probably become the new primary source - nuclear.
Batteries have other limits, as well. Each has a maximum capacity, as well as maximum charge and discharge rates, and a maximum lifetime. The charge rate determines the minimum time required to recharge. It also sets the amount of electric power required from the grid to charge all of the batteries in use. Today’s local grid is not up to the task.
Using solar energy to process atmospheric CO2 to release oxygen and build carbon compounds is exactly what plants do - this would be just another version of it. I have read about growing algae for processing by thermal depolymerization as another approach.
Economics will determine the winner.
interesting. bookmark
your thoughts?
btt