Peak Oil

Trevor Craig

Energy Science 110

Lecture Summary for Peak Oil

8/23/11           

This lecture was about how the price of oil often times affect how the economy of different countries. This is important because oil runs our county and the world’s economy, accounting for 35.03% of the world’s energy. To understand the world better and oil, we must first understand where the oil is from, the amount of oil left on this earth, and the prices of oil going both up and down. There is only a limited amount of oil known in the world, according to Oil and Gas Journal 2008, there are only 1,342 billion barrels left in the world. This small amount of oil is expected to be out in 50 years if there are no new discoveries of oil or if the rate at which we use oil does not decrease. This greatly affects the price.

There is more demand for oil while there is a constantly decreasing amount of oil, this affects the price of oil to go up, this is evident especially when access to oil has been stopped, for example the war in 2008 caused the price of oil to spike all the way to $147 dollars a barrel because the demand for it was very high and providers where low, where the price now is only $85. The price will eventually reach a point where people will not be willing to pay for it and that is when economies often collapse for the countries buying the barrels of oil. The countries that are selling the oil are making lots of money off the countries that have to buy, the much needed oil for our modern society to function. One country that are making lots of money from the United States include, Saudi Arriba who produces 3.2 billion barrels annually, compared to the United States who produces only 1.8 billion barrels annually (2008). This can be a bad thing because all the money from the United States goes to positively effects countries that may not agree with the United States, and use the money for things that could negatively affect the world and the United States. In 1973 the United States imported only 34.8% of the amount we needed, where in 2010 we imported 63.3% and this trend is supposed to continue. With the United States trend to be using more oil from other countries because of our dwindling supply, this could be a real problem.   

There are many alternatives to getting oil which will make oil never truly run out, but many of these ways are bad for the environment and expensive. But currently the trend looks like that as oil becomes more expensive and less of it, traditional oil collection will decrease and new techniques will rise.

Tar Sands- A colloquial term for an oil reserve which are part of a natural mix of sand or clay, water, and a type of oil known as bitumen. The process of extracting oil from tar sands is expensive, but when oil prices rise, they are considered more seriously for large-scale extractions. Also called oil sands, non-conventional oil or extra heavy oil.

OPEC- Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. A collective of countries founded in 1960 that choose to collaborate in order to manage the exportation of their crude oil to the rest of the world. Because of their ability to adjust production levels, they possess a great deal of influence on the price of oil. 

ENSC110 Craig Peak Oil