Bill Wright wrote:
"David Taylor" wrote in message
...
On 2008-06-14, Bill Wright wrote:
Surprisingly, an item in yesterday's Times (could have been Thursday's)
showed (if taken as the truth) that oil reserves are greater now than
they
have ever been. An impressive graphic had been produced to illustrate
this.
And there was the oil 'expert' from the US on the telly last week who
said
that the oil would never run out because of all the low grade reserves as
yet untouched.
"Never"? That's a very long time, especially considering oil usage is
constantly growing. However many "low grade reserves" you have, there
is not an infinite supply of oil. It _will_ run out, if we keep using
it at this ever increasing rate. The question is merely when.
I should think he meant that the oil will last for the forseeable future.
Perhaps 100 years. It would be quite absurd for us to trouble ourselves
about what will happen after that.


It will last longer han that, because at 250 dollars a barrel+ no one
will want to use it.


It will get very expensive, yes, but ultimately replacements
will come in a various price points. This leads me to this morning's item
in
the Times (page 56 I think) which describes two apparently very promising
means of producing crude via genetic engineering.
Yes, eventually replacements (wind/tidal/solar/nuclear/geothermal) will
become cheaper than oil. The question is how fast they will be able to
be introduced, and how fast the price of oil will rise.

The laws of supply and demand will solve everything.

Eventually, but it will take a decade or two.

Bill