Peak Oil?

[3onthetree]

There is an add currently running on Aussie T.V for a large multinational oil company, in the add one bloke goes down a well hole in the desert and after a while returns with a dipstick stating that there is only fifty percent of the worlds oil reserves remaining.
This is a blatantly misleading and just another way of getting us suckers to accept the highly inflated price of fuel.
www.radford.edu/~wkovarik/oil/
Though I hope they do go too far in there greed and force consumers into alternative fuels. In the here and now we have to deal with these monster Corps and if there ever was a "true" conspiracy you can bet these buggers are in it.

[scooter]

It's all about supply and demand. Here in the US, we suck oil faster than water, wasting it at incredible rates. Meanwhile we regulate oil production more than pharmacutical companies, telling them what to produce, where they can and can't produce it, etc.. And we "demand" them to sell the product at the price of our choosing...pure nonsense.
They can charge what they like in my book, and I'll personally use just what I need. All the whiners in their gas guzzlers can just "suck it up" and live with it.
Meanwhile, the politicians will fall all over themselves holding hearings (while the Kennedys and Kerrys keep crushing off shore wind farm plans off the coast of the Hamptons that would "spoil" their vacation home views.) They add "windfall profit taxes" to the cost, and rake in more $$ for the government, doesn't touch the price per gallon at the pump.
Watching the driving "styles" locally, I see very few who are interested in saving fuel around here, but they'll whine just the same.
Dave

[octoman]

The problem isn't that we'll "run out of oil." I mean, we will, eventually, use ALL the oil on the planet, but the problem is that the remaining oil becomes increasingly difficult to locate, expensive to pull up from the ground, difficult to refine, since the "light, sweet" crude will be all gone.

www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/rankorder/2178rank.html
Canada, for instance, is listed as having the SECOND LARGEST reserves of petroleum, but that includes Tar Sands that are costly to process. I don't think the US will be invading Canada for a while yet.

Also, as scooter says, it's a supply and demand issue. China and other nations are increasing the number of cars and factories on the planet at a huge rate.

[3onthetree]

I don't think the US will be invading Canada for a while yet.

Well it wouldn't be the first time. The funny thing is the Canadians keep winning. ;D
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/29/AR2005122901412_pf.html
I like that CIA fact book. The thing with proved reserves is that unless the oil can be brought to the surface by two Bedouin tribesmen, one camel and a sharp stick, that oil won't go into the proved figures.

[PhantomWolf]

Actually Canadian Oil Sands are big business now days, they have developed methods to extract it quickly and cheaply.

[echnaton]

The rise in oil prices in the last five years is largely a result of a notable decline in worldwide excess production capacity. It is that factor that generally sets the marginal price. When there is significantly more production capacity than demand, producers have to decide whether to open the tap or save the oil for production at a latter date and as the price goes up more will open those taps. Right now there are virtually no wells that are holding back. U.S. and Canadian firms are even digging up the oil sands and heating them with natural gas to extract the oil within and trucking it away. While this is more efficient than in the past, it costs much more than punching a hole in the ground and operating a pump and a pipeline. But oil sands are now the marginal production.

If we want cheaper oil, we need to either increase production capacity, use significantly less in our daily activities, or have another worldwide recession that will reduce global demand. The problem with using less is that the economy is far more efficient than it was in the oil crisis of the seventies. Much of the waste has been eliminated and there are only incremental gains to be made. Fuel switching by industry is limited by the poor shipping qualities of natural gas. Personal efficiency by driving smaller cars takes years to have an effect because most people will not sell a current vehicle to gain the fuel savings. Cars last much longer than the junk that American manufacturers used to produce, so this process takes some time. My five year old gas guzzling Durango (purchased when gas was under one dollar) will be paid off this summer and I have no intention of taking on a $700 car payment so I can save 100 dollars a month driving to work and forgo the ability to pile my family in one car to go camping.