before you click the link, make your own list of oil-rich countries and rank them
I guessed wrong
https://www.zerohedge.com/energy/which-countries-have-worlds-largest-proven-oil-reserves
Thanks Gunter!
A wonderful, very enlightening contribution.
Related to that. Many sources tell us that crude oil will run out in just over 50 years.
Personally, I think they will keep discovering more oil as they have been telling us we are getting close to peak oil and will run out in just XX more years............for the past 40 years.
https://chariotenergy.com/chariot-university/when-will-fossil-fuels-run-out/
Imagine if Venezuela could get out of it's own way. Instead of wondering where their next sheet of toilet paper is coming from, they would have the wealth to supply other countries with toilet paper.
when i was in grade school in the 70's, everyone said there was 40 years worth of oil left.
when i was in college in the 80's, everyone said there was 40 years worth of oil left.
today many are still saying there is 40 or 50 years worth of oil left. we find more each decade.
it also depends on what you count as reserves. in the 70's many did not count heavy sands or tars.
reserves is different that what is economically worthwhile.
bear,
I believe the geologists in the oil industry give us these numbers so that the oil industry can make a case for oil to have more value.
The more of something that you have, the less you can charge for it.
If people THINK THAT it's more scarce and you will run out........you can assign a much greater value to it and charge a higher price for it because of the laws of supply/demand.
I think theres a very good chance that we have ABIOTIC oil, that's manufactured deep inside the earth from tremendous temperatures and pressures which gradually work its way towards the surface.
You noted how peak oil and reserves just keep growing. Well, we are often given estimates the supposedly incorporate additional, estimates of new discoveries that are not know right now, based on the supposedly best information out there of what is likely still out there...............those are always too low.
Besides them covering up how much oil is really out there because the experts have a tremendous amount of skin in the game............the estimators are usually IN THE OIL BUSINESS.
I think that if abiotic oil existed, then fossil fuels would be RENEWABLE fuels and we would have an unlimited supply. Just drill deeper to get close to the source.
For me as a scientist, thinking critically.........I know that life existed for hundreds of millions of years and you can accumulate alot of fossils from dead life in that period to make the fossil fuels.
However, we are getting to the point where the massive amounts of fossil fuels consumed so far and additional massive and often surprising new amounts that just keep getting discovered are making it hard to explain based on just coming from the fossils of ancient life on this planet.
At what point do we start asking questions and say thing like.........ok, the math is just not adding up anymore. How could all the life that we estimate to have existed make this much fossil fuel?
There are other questions to this theory too.
The biggest one is related to how its been taught.
Often, we have a speculative theory in science that, is just that in the beginning..........a speculative theory.
In the absence of an opposing theory, the speculative one gets accepted, then after awhile is no longer seen as a theory but is taught as the proven fact...........with everybody accepting it like photosynthesis or gravity.
But in some realms, like this one it doesn't have the same proof but after several generations of it being taught as the ONLY explanation, everybody assumes it to be proven science.
When a new, very plausible theory enters...........like abiotic oil, all the experts have already decided that all the oil is from fossil fuels and process all the new information based on what they think that they know..........and they defend fossil fuel origins of oil and attack abiotic oil theory because their minds can only see it that way..........cognitive bias programmed into their understanding of the science/geology.
Almost every book and source out there explains why fossil fuels are the source of all the FOSSIL FUELS. It's even called that.
You would have to give it a different name if we discovered much of it came from natural processes deep inside the earth.
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2008RG000270
Very interesting article. Thanks
Good to hear from you matt!
Interesting is an understatement.
I read this entire paper over again and feel their strong points have very compelling evidence which is being covered up by the gas and oil industry to protect their many trillion dollar investment.
I'll have to read the opposing views again as I spent some time doing around 10 years ago........which are the vast majority of views. In light of observing how the world operates during the last decade(people in control manufacturing realities that serve them) I no longer trust sources that tell us these mind boggling amounts of gas and oil............that keep increasing to amounts well beyond what could possibly have been created thru organic/biologic decomposition of deposits of previous life.
The amounts available from high pressure/temperature creation deep in the earth, along with the unlimited carbon/hydrogen sources is the only thing that makes sense.
We should keep in mind that COAL deposits may be a completely different story. Coal almost certainly is all from fossils......but wait a second, I'm reading some theories that suggest that might not be so either. Stay tuned.
It's only gas and oil that is abiotic(not from a biological process) which is discussed by this group.
From the article.
[124] Geological data presented in this paper do not respond to the main questions related to the hypothesis of biotic petroleum origin. Only the theory of the abyssal abiogenic origin of petroleum gives a convincing explanation for all of the above mentioned data. The experimental results discussed in the paper confirm that the CaCO3-FeO-H2O system spontaneously generates the suite of hydrocarbons characteristic of natural petroleum. Modern scientific considerations about the genesis of hydrocarbons confirmed by the results of experiments and practical results of geological investigations provide the understanding that part of the hydrocarbon compounds could be generated at the mantle conditions and migrate through deep faults into the Earth's crust, where they form oil and gas deposits in any kind of rock and in any kind of structural position. The experimental results presented place the theory of the abyssal abiogenic origin of petroleum in the mainstream of modern physics and chemistry and open a great practical application. The theory of the abyssal abiogenic origin of petroleum confirms the presence of enormous, inexhaustible resources of hydrocarbons in our planet and allows us to develop a new approach to methods for petroleum exploration and to reexamine the structure, size, and location of the world's hydrocarbons reserves.
That's quite interesting. As a kid, hearing about how the oil came from dead dinos, I often wondered about the idea that was also presented, that the dinos and othe animals, could become entrapped in tar pits. The tar pits were also hydrocarbon based, and obviously were established before the time of the dinos.
Perhaps, as we keep drilling, tunneling, and exploring deeper towards the core, these theories might be proven out. Science is about seeking out the truth. And as new discoveries are made, so are new truths. Therefore, science is not the absolute truth. Just the truth we know about.
Exactly Mark!
Science is about seeking out the truth and politics is about distorting the truth for political agenda(by manufacturing fake realities...in the case of the fake climate crisis creating computer simulations of the climate/weather using subjective equations that have been too warm for over 3 decades and are tweeked to be even warmer, not less warm because they are made to have political impact, not represent authentic science)
And to convince the world that hydrocarbons are limited and will run out because they are all made of dead plants/animals, so the gas and oil industry can price gouge us