Hell, if one were to have believed my junior high school teachers, we’d be out of oil by… uh… two years ago…

There are shale oil deposits in Colorado that outstrip the entire Middle East. It’s just cheaper to drill it there and ship it over the ocean than it is to extract that oil from the shale.

If I were gay, I’d totally use my Cajun Express to probe the Jack field.

There might be billions of barrels of undiscovered oil, but at the ever increasing rates we are using it at, we will eventually run out of crude.

There might be billions of barrels of undiscovered oil, but at the ever increasing rates we are using it at, we will eventually run out of crude.

We will eventually run out of solar power, too. Should we turn down the sun? (With it hitting better than 110F in the shade here during summer months on a routine basis, I wouldn’t mind all that much.)

There might be billions of barrels of undiscovered oil, but at the ever increasing rates we are using it at, we will eventually run out of crude.

No, we won’t.  Either the market will drive up the price, thereby making alternatives financially viable, or we’ll find more and get more efficient at using it, stretching out the supply to God knows when.

It will *never* go away.  Certainly not in our lifetimes, as the peak oil nuts keep saying.

we will eventually run out of crude.

Now, Jim…

The word “eventually” means “at some point in the future”, whether tomorrow or a billion years from now, so there’s no real way to state that he is actually wrong, just massively confused about time scales and the reality of market forces.

There are some geologists who believe that oil is created by the continuous action of the core and mantle, rather than as a result of the degradation of organic matter. If they are right, then there is no end to the amount of oil available to us, just increasing difficulty - therefore, increased cost - in getting it to the surface for use.

We will eventually run out of solar power, too. Should we turn down the sun? (With it hitting better than 110F in the shade here during summer months on a routine basis, I wouldn’t mind all that much.)

The sun will turn itself down when it goes into it’s Red Giant, by then it won’t matter.

As for being massively confused about time scales, I’m far from being confused. I know that it will be after our lifetime, but we will eventually run out of enough crude to drill, no matter how it’s created.

I know that it will be after our lifetime, but we will eventually run out of enough crude to drill, no matter how it’s created.

As has been pointed out, that weasel word - “eventually” - includes both the extraordinarily abbreviated time scale you have in mind (measured in mere years or decades) and the overly broad interpretation you are imputing to us (measured in geological eras).

Neither is correct.

From the most conservative estimates, it will be a few centuries before we consume all known pockets of oil reserves at current rates, which does not include effects of improved efficiency or alternate power sources.

So you can relax a bit and concentrate on the really important stuff.

“There might be billions of undiscovered whales, but at the ever increasing rates we are using it at, we will eventually run out of whale oil.”

There are some geologists who believe that oil is created by the continuous action of the core and mantle, rather than as a result of the degradation of organic matter. If they are right, then there is no end to the amount of oil available to us, just increasing difficulty - therefore, increased cost - in getting it to the surface for use.

To be fair, Drum, I have to tell you that the Abiotic Oil theory is kind of like the 9/11 conspiracy theories, only with even less evidence, if that’s possible.
To date, there have been no deposit samples found that show, conclusively, any abiotic markers.
So, sure, in an infinite universe it would be possible that oil is created without biological material… but then it would also be possible that oil is a just an imaginary tool used to control the populus by the eeevil conservative war machine. (who are also evil aliens from the planet Bushitlerchimpymcflightsuit IV.)

Point is, we really don’t need to resort to crazy theories like this one to defend the resilience of oil supply markets.
We’re much better just using real science, which does just fine in decimating the peak oil theories by itself.

Point is, we really don’t need to resort to crazy theories like this one to defend the resilience of oil supply markets.

Never said I believed in it myself since IANAG (I Am Not A Geologist), just that there are some people out there who do. But you have a good point.

or we can just pump all those hydrocarbons out of jupiter’s atmosphere.

And mine the Asteroids for the minerals....

I live in the Permian Basin, the epicenter of Domestic oil drilling. This area stretches from Amarillo, Tx all the way south to just North of San Antonio, west into New Mexico to the Rockies, and east to the Pecos River.  Twice idiotic pronouncements like this one about “peak oil” has devastated this part of the world, the worse being the Energy Crisis of the 70’s, which led to the brilliant energy policies of James Carter.  The worse of these is the Windfall Profits taxes, which pretty much destroyed domestic drillers because they were now taxed 3 times for their work.

Now the oilfield is booming, and the can’t pump it out of the ground fast enough. Actually I should say, as fast as the government will let them.  The giant problem is not available oil, its governmental regulation.  They can’t drill certain months cause it disturbs the mating habits of the “Prairie Chicken”.  They can’t drill more than a certain depth because that requires an EPA impact study to be performed.And on and on. We can’t drill off the coast of Texas, Florida or California. We can’t drill in Anwar. Lots of places with lots of oil, but we can’t get to it not because of technology, or will, or want, but because the government. 
Sorry to ramble, but when you see a town of 25,000 turn into a ghost town of 15000 because the one industry that keeps it going is maligned for selfish reasons, it gets your dander up.

I know what you mean. I was there (in Midland, the city through which most of that oil money flows) for a boom-then-bust cycle. During the boom, there were more millionaires per capita in Midland than in any other city on the planet, including Beverly Hills or Malibu.

I graduated from Midland Lee, fwiw, and worked throughout that area, from Big Spring and San Angelo on up into Hobbs, NM. My older brother was a big rig driver for the pumping companies, hauling pipe and other heavy equipment.

We even had a small pumping station right across the street from a house where we used to live, and I can still remember the smell of that lubrication grease.

That was many moons ago, though…