This is scary!

[V. Barbarino]

Earth's oil gauge on low?

Rising demand puts pressure on proven reserves, which have not seen a significant boost in 30 years.
May 20, 2004: 3:03 PM EDT



NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - With oil prices hovering near record highs and OPEC saying it's out of their control, the question of whether the planet is nearing the end of its oil supply has again arisen.

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Demand for oil has soared over the last year, with prices in tow, as China has emerged as an economic powerhouse and other developing countries have boosted consumption.

In addition, oil use is picking up more steam now as the United States -- the world's biggest energy consumer -- heads into the summer driving season.

The concern is that this rising consumption is outpacing the discovery of new crude reserves.



Worldwide use of crude oil is at an all time high and there's no sign that demand will drop anytime soon. As CNNfn Chris Huntington reports, the big question is: Are we running out of oil?


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At current rates of production, there were 40.6 years of consumption covered by proven reserves in 2002, the latest data available, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The newspaper, citing the BP Statistical Review, said that in 1989, there were 44.7 years left of consumption.

"[A shortage] will probably happen in the next 10 to 20 years," Professor David Goodstein, a physicist at the California Institute of Technology, told CNNfn.

"And it may have already begun," he added.

Meanwhile, the discovery of huge pools of oil beneath the earth's surface has hit a dry spell.

A field off the Kazakhstan coast was the last major discovery in 30 years, according to the Journal.

And fields in other traditional oil-heavy areas such as Texas, Alaska and the North Sea are in decline.

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Exacerbating matters are worries about threats to political stability in Saudi Arabia, the world's largest exporter, and the rest of the Middle East, as well as reductions in producers' proven reserves.

Earlier this year, Royal Dutch/Shell, one of the world's biggest oil companies, cut the amount of its proven reserves by 22 percent in a scandal that led to the ouster of top executives at the British- and Dutch-owned company.

While oil prices are near record highs in current dollars, adjusted for inflation prices are well off the highs they hit in the 1970s and early '80s

[LeVeL]

It really is scary to see these allegations because it really is true we are running out of fucking Oil and there is nothing we can do about it. We have to invest in the other technologies more seriously because they take out an electrical car and then they stop making them. They also took out a hydrogen car but people dont tend to invest on it since its so expensive. The automakers need to take notice because soon all of us wont have oil to run our cars and that will be a disaster.

I say take the oil being used by Nascar and give it to the the people. Those idiots are wasting our oil racing.......

[Apotheosis]

Originally Posted by levelistic

I say take the oil being used by Nascar and give it to the the people. Those idiots are wasting our oil racing.......

duude!!! great idea! and think about all the oil those rednecks use to drive across the country to go to the races....i think you got something there! ;D

[LeVeL]

Originally Posted by Apotheosis

duude!!! great idea! and think about all the oil those rednecks use to drive across the country to go to the races....i think you got something there! ;D

Yeah man those Idiots race on tracks that run 500 Miles and there are 40 to 45 cars racing every week just imagine how much gas they waste. A regular person doesn't waste that much gas in a month from one of the cars that race in nascar.

[Apotheosis]

yeah, and didn't mr. bush ask us americans to make sacrifices in our daily lives? F*CKIN PATHETIC. the first thing to go in this country should be nascar

[JMT]

good point. but if nascar ended tommorrow would it even make one iota of a change in global oil usage? it would probably be like pouring one cup of water into an olympic swimming pool.

pretty much all other racing uses a from of natural gas, like indy and formula 1.

[Clarisa]

I predict a civil war in the near future.

[V. Barbarino]

Originally Posted by Clarisa

I predict a civil war in the near future.

You do understand a civil war is war within a country? and I think America is way way way past that...

[Clarisa]

I do understand that. When money is the way people get killed

[Apotheosis]

Originally Posted by JMT

good point. but if nascar ended tommorrow would it even make one iota of a change in global oil usage? it would probably be like pouring one cup of water into an olympic swimming pool.

pretty much all other racing uses a from of natural gas, like indy and formula 1.

not that it would EVER happen, of course, but...

my point is the hundreds of thousands of people that go to the races. from all over the country, they swarm into tiny towns in alabama and south carolina to see cars drive in circles. nascar is the #1 ( in attendance) spectator sport in america. and you figure, about 99% of those well-meaning folks are drving either pick-up trucks or motorhomes, both of which are not known for their fuel efficiency. it's a cultural problem, in my opinion.