At $110 for Brent, all sorts of odd and difficult oil supplies will get developed. What's the net energy extracted for the economy to do useful work with, tho

At $110 for Brent, all sorts of odd and difficult oil supplies will get developed. What's the net energy extracted for the economy to do useful work with, though? The energy (and dollar) cost of extracting oil shales and deepwater is enormous compared to the Kingdom's costs for their supergiant fields. This is good news, if true, for the US' balance of trade, but sustained $100+/barrel oil will induce major structural shifts in our economy whether we're exporting or importing. The EROEI (Energy Returned on Energy Invested) implications of these prices are even worse. At a certain point, the only reason to continue to drill is because it's marginally cheaper than the energy intensive task of creating liquid fuels from organic feedstocks (i.e. - ethanol). We'll have to have switch at that point to something else as the primary source of energy for our economy, but nothing else is even close to being ready. I hope you're all ready to work like Joey Hess, netbook battery by candle light: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4721645 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4721645