"End of the oil age"

[Taita]

As long as I am dead of old age when we run out

[Halb]

Jimbeaux said:

I am all for alternative energy without a leftist agenda attached. That said, there are inmumerable producing wells all over the US that are capped for future use. I live in an oil industry state and have access to those in the know at many levels. The idea that we are all about to run out of oil is utter cr@p

I used to frequent a board where some fella from Texas told us that wells there replenish themselves and get shut down periodically to allow to refill, then reopened some years later. But is consumption goes up with Chin/India et al then it will simply 'run out' because the wells won't refill fast enough? This is a question.

[Charlie Boy]

Jimbeaux said:

I am all for alternative energy without a leftist agenda attached. That said, there are inmumerable producing wells all over the US that are capped for future use. I live in an oil industry state and have access to those in the know at many levels. The idea that we are all about to run out of oil is utter cr@p

What do those in the know say about deep earth oil and some refilling wells?

[nonuts]

You are wrong to be worries about it yes, not because it's not worrying but because there's fook all you can do.

If energy security hadn't been rock bottom on the political agenda for all these years, and everyone wasn't so st scared of nuclear, and we hadn't sold off bits of what BNFL had we'd have pretty much no worries about nuclear energy supporting us for a good while yet.

[stitched]

Halb said:

Jimbeaux said:

I am all for alternative energy without a leftist agenda attached. That said, there are inmumerable producing wells all over the US that are capped for future use. I live in an oil industry state and have access to those in the know at many levels. The idea that we are all about to run out of oil is utter cr@p

I used to frequent a board where some fella from Texas told us that wells there replenish themselves and get shut down periodically to allow to refill, then reopened some years later. But is consumption goes up with Chin/India et al then it will simply 'run out' because the wells won't refill fast enough? This is a question.

The deep oil theory is that the oil is formed in the core and seeps up to the surface, so a renewable resource.
Problem is that the only country who seem sold on the idea is Russia and they're not too forthcoming with evidence. Possibly as they have more clout in the world if people think oil is a fossil fuel.

[_Al_]

Just a quick point - the problem isn't so much running out of oil, it's a problem of supply and demand. Oil is so vital to us because it's cheap.

If oil supply fails to meet demand and we end up at £10+ per litre, even for a couple of weeks before it dips back, how many people could cope? Certainly not the average person who drives 15miles to their job on 20k per year.

The worry is that at those prices you get economic meltdown to make the credit crunch look as serious as a broken cash machine.

Now that I think about it, those nuclear plants aren't going to help much with people getting to work..

[Jimbeaux]

Halb said:

Jimbeaux said:

I am all for alternative energy without a leftist agenda attached. That said, there are inmumerable producing wells all over the US that are capped for future use. I live in an oil industry state and have access to those in the know at many levels. The idea that we are all about to run out of oil is utter cr@p

I used to frequent a board where some fella from Texas told us that wells there replenish themselves and get shut down periodically to allow to refill, then reopened some years later. But is consumption goes up with Chin/India et al then it will simply 'run out' because the wells won't refill fast enough? This is a question.

I will have to ask about that, I myself do not know. As to India/China using more of it....I suppose that is if we decide to sell it or use it ourselves.

[Jimbeaux]

Charlie Boy said:

Jimbeaux said:

I am all for alternative energy without a leftist agenda attached. That said, there are inmumerable producing wells all over the US that are capped for future use. I live in an oil industry state and have access to those in the know at many levels. The idea that we are all about to run out of oil is utter cr@p

What do those in the know say about deep earth oil and some refilling wells?

See above post; good question. I will inquire thereto!

[tinman0]

Oakey said:

Charlie Boy said:

Also some oil wells are refilling especially in the Gulf of Mexico just so happens to be one of the most fractured areas of the earths crust allowing oil to seep up from where it is created! They have done tests on deep earth oil that shows it has been created by in organic means. Bacteria starts to eat the oil at higher depths giving the false impression in the past that it is of organic origin and there fore in limited supply a nice little theory invented to keep prices high on the knowledge it might run out.

Did I miss the the part where it was announced to the world that Oil was self-replenishing? I knew there were theories but I didn't know it had been confirmed. Is the science settled, you know, like Climate Change science is settled?

IIRC It was a well in the Gulf of Mexico a few years ago. They had more or less emptied it and moved on. A few years later they were doing some research and discovered that the well had oil in it again and they started to pump from it at a much lower level than before though.

There remained a number of questions though, either the oil was coming up from somewhere to refill, or there were other wells nearby that seeped into the one in question.

But I think they did a test or something on the oil, and decided that it was coming from much lower down as it had none of the usual rubbish they see in oil.

Or something like that anyway.

[Jimbeaux]

nonuts said:

You are wrong to be worries about it yes, not because it's not worrying but because there's fook all you can do.

If energy security hadn't been rock bottom on the political agenda for all these years, and everyone wasn't so st scared of nuclear, and we hadn't sold off bits of what BNFL had we'd have pretty much no worries about nuclear energy supporting us for a good while yet.

I agree. After laying dormant for so long, 30 new licenses for nuke plant construction were issued over the last 3-4 years here. I am all for it. Especially now that the designs are more standardized. In addition, the company building, operating, and soon to be manufacturing parts for many of those 30 (and 4 in China) is right here in my state.

Edited by Jimbeaux on Wednesday 7th April 19:00

[Halb]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abiogenic_petroleum_o...

[tinman0]

Jimbeaux said:

nonuts said:

You are wrong to be worries about it yes, not because it's not worrying but because there's fook all you can do.

If energy security hadn't been rock bottom on the political agenda for all these years, and everyone wasn't so st scared of nuclear, and we hadn't sold off bits of what BNFL had we'd have pretty much no worries about nuclear energy supporting us for a good while yet.

I agree. After laying dormant for so long, 30 new license for nuke plant construction were issued over the last 3-4 years here. I am all for it. Especially now that the designs are more standardized. In addition, the company building, operating, and soon to be manufacturing parts for many of tose 30 (and 4 in China) is right here in my state.

Might give red neck a whole new meaning!

[Jimbeaux]

tinman0 said:

Jimbeaux said:

nonuts said:

You are wrong to be worries about it yes, not because it's not worrying but because there's fook all you can do.

If energy security hadn't been rock bottom on the political agenda for all these years, and everyone wasn't so st scared of nuclear, and we hadn't sold off bits of what BNFL had we'd have pretty much no worries about nuclear energy supporting us for a good while yet.

I agree. After laying dormant for so long, 30 new license for nuke plant construction were issued over the last 3-4 years here. I am all for it. Especially now that the designs are more standardized. In addition, the company building, operating, and soon to be manufacturing parts for many of tose 30 (and 4 in China) is right here in my state.

Might give red neck a whole new meaning!

As if most knew what or who that really was to begin with.

[dcb]

Taita said:

As long as I am dead of old age when we run out

Good comedy.

Oil is about $80 a barrel currently, or about £52.64 for 159 Litres
or about 33p a litre.

To compare, a litre of Milk at my local Tesco is about 85p.

GCSE Economics tells us about supply and demand curves.

If we are running out of oil, how come it's still less
than half the price of milk ?

Clue: we aren't running out of oil anytime soon.

[tangent police]

AlfaFoxtrot said:

tangent police said:

As with my usual dose of near psychotic paranoia, I think the MMuGW hysteria was a realistic global attempt at mitigating against peak oil.

Sadly, the methodology was crap.

For those of you about to say "it's bullst". Have a read of something called The Hirsch Report.

Odd how nothing was done about it.

Coal will be king again and thankfully, due to Maggies brilliance, we are sat on fkloads of it.....

EU coal, that is.

Afraid not, according to this we have less than 0.1% of known world reserves (less than Thailand and N Korea)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal_reserves#World_c...

Odd, according to a book I have, we stand at 90B tonnes. More than India and Aus.

There is a lot of debate about how sterilised it is. 90B tonnes was the "recoverable" figure as well.

[Jimbeaux]

I understand that coal can be burned around 70% cleaner than 20 years ago. Of course the enviro-jihadists disagree with this.
As the USA has the largest coal reserves in the world, I am all for using more of this and cutting down on oil in order to build up surpluses.

Edited by Jimbeaux on Wednesday 7th April 21:28

[hidetheelephants]

If we are running out of anything it is cheap oil(and commonsense); black gold will be being pumped out of holes in the ground long after we are all wormfood. even if it becomes too expensive to use as a transportation fuel, its derivatives use in the production of everything from lubricants via plastic tat to weedkiller and paint make it too valuable to leave in the ground.

[Blib]

A couple of nights ago (no, it was April 1st), I heard on the World Service that thanks to a very recent breakthrough, gas, hitherto for all intents and purposes trapped in shale, can now be economically 'mined'.

That there were huge reserves in Poland - enough for one hundred year's European consumption and similar ones in North America.

This breakthrough led the head of Gasprom to condemn the methods used as unenvironmental as, in some cases chemicals are used along with water to release the gas.

Did anyone else hear or read of this? What is the potential of this shale?

[Jimbeaux]

Blib said:

A couple of nights ago (no, it was April 1st), I heard on the World Service that thanks to a very recent breakthrough, gas, hitherto for all intents and purposes trapped in shale, can now be economically 'mined'.

That there were huge reserves in Poland - enough for one hundred year's European consumption and similar ones in North America.

This breakthrough led the head of Gasprom to condemn the methods used as unenvironmental as, in some cases chemicals are used along with water to release the gas.

Did anyone else hear or read of this? What is the potential of this shale?

Yes, the ability to mine shale petro-products is becoming far more practical than it was and there is apparently a $hitload of it around. Conservative estimates put some US shale reserves as three times that of known Saudi crude reserves.
Here are the countries known to have sizeable Shale deposits:

"Countries with Oil Shale deposits---Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Estonia, Russia, Scotland, South Africa, Spain, Sweden and the USA. (The USA has 62% of the potentially recoverable oil shale on the planet.)"

http://ostseis.anl.gov/guide/oilshale/

http://fossil.energy.gov/programs/reserves/npr/npr...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_shale

Edited by Jimbeaux on Wednesday 7th April 21:45

[hidetheelephants]

Doubtless someone will find a means of mining all the gas hydrates that are trapped in sediment on the seabed, then we really will have a practically endless gas supply.