4 ms·
It's hard to know what to believe anymore. There were endless articles about 'peak oil' a few years ago.
by olivermarks 7y ago
It's hard to know what to believe anymore. There were endless articles about 'peak oil' a few years ago.
- hinkley 7y agoWe had articles about this in the 80's too. What happened then? Better mapping tools to identify oil-bearing structures, and better catalysts to crack oil. Those catalysts have been worked on since then and they're many times bigger now (I can't recall why this matters). At some point we developed horizontal drilling. All these things were too expensive when oil was cheaper. What other processes are waiting in the wings?
- aidenn0 7y agoAnother thing that happened is that growth of oil usage declined. From 1950 to 1968, worldwide oil usage quadrupled; that's an annual growth rate of about 3.9%. In the past 50 years it's doubled, that's an annual growth rate of about 1.4%. If usage had continued growing at the 4% rate, we would have already exhausted today's P1 reserves. By the 80s it was clear that oil prices were back on the decline, so many thought demand might return to the earlier growth rate (making the 70s crisis a "hiccup" rather than having a permanent affect).
- Tepix 7y agoThe thing that happened that the oil price reached a level that getting oil from tar sand got profitable.