The amount of oil resources is fixed upon a price point and technology level. At $1000 a barrel there is a lot more oil in the world than at $5. With improved r

The amount of oil resources is fixed upon a price point and technology level. At $1000 a barrel there is a lot more oil in the world than at $5. With improved recovery systems there is more oil in each well, etc. With 17KM drills there is still more oil. At $140 per barrel there is more oil in Alberta than in Saudi Arabia. Oil reserves are proved out at a given price point. Exxon will not look for oil that can be extracted at $250 per barrel because that price point is not on the near term horizon. I personally doubt we'll ever hit an inflation adjusted $250 per barrel because of the substitutes available at that price point.