What will we do when the oil runs out?

Creative83

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2014/06/28/the-world-was-533-years-of-oil-left/11528999/

Granted, the article is 3 years old but it raises an important question. What the hell are we going to do when oil runs out :O Pretty much everything you own, eat, wear etc is a byproduct of oil.

Nuclear & renewable energy power may provide our electric power but it won't create things like plastics the way oil does.

It's actually a very scary scenario if the worlds oil supply dwindles. Wars will start over it. Bio-fuel might do a bit to offer some hope but at the moment it's not advanced enough to satisfy any kind of demand... and it may never be.

Anyone have any ideas? Seems hopeless :O Modern life destroyed without oil.

jacksie66

This post has been deleted.

Roger Hassenforder

I thought the oil had run out the other day, but it was just an air lock.
Still I'm going tampering with the thermostat so it read slightly higher than it is...
that'll teach her

Doltanian

Coal can be used to create Synthetic oil using the Fischer Topsch Process. There is loads of oil left and there will be a shift away from it before it ever runs out. There is massive oilfields untapped under Antarctica and the Polar North, Venezuela and the Athabasca tar-sands alone could fuel current consumption even at current growth rates for the next 150 years. The global Population will peak around 2075 and decline thereafter. Wars will be fought and plague and pestilence will also reduce consumption.

blanch152

mini_Sapphire wrote: »

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2014/06/28/the-world-was-533-years-of-oil-left/11528999/

Granted, the article is 3 years old but it raises an important question. What the hell are we going to do when oil runs out :O Pretty much everything you own, eat, wear etc is a byproduct of oil.

Nuclear & renewable energy power may provide our electric power but it won't create things like plastics the way oil does.

It's actually a very scary scenario if the worlds oil supply dwindles. Wars will start over it. Bio-fuel might do a bit to offer some hope but at the moment it's not advanced enough to satisfy any kind of demand... and it may never be.

Anyone have any ideas? Seems hopeless :O Modern life destroyed without oil.

It really doesn't matter, if we are still using oil in 53 years at the current rates, then we will have a climate problem so serious that it won't matter. Usage rates will drop and the 53 years will increase as a result.

What is more important is whether there are enough raw materials for the future solar, wind-power and battery demand.

Creative83

blanch152 wrote: »

if we are still using oil in 53 years at the current rates, then we will have a climate problem

No we won't.

Hector Bellend

Have a cup of tea and a ****

BorneTobyWilde

Can always grow oil, hard for it to run out if you keep growing it. Fly over Germany in summer and it's a sea of yellow, fly over Ireland it's a sea of green, empty fields doing nothing. Should be growing oil like germany, and making HVO from it, not Biodiesel, that is so 90's, HVO is the new diesel fuel made from same product, grown oil or waste vegetable oils. It's a drop in fuel, no alterations needed.

Captain Slow IRL

Doltanian wrote: »

............The global Population will peak around 2075 and decline thereafter............

On what basis are you saying this?

Charlie19

Anytime we run out of oil, we just light the fire.

Creative83

Charlie19 wrote: »

Anytime we run out of oil, we just light the fire.

It's not about electric power... it's that everything in modern life derives from oil....

Dr Brown

It won't run out any time soon they have been talking about "peak oil" since the 19th century.

Even in the 1970s they were saying oil would run out within 30 years.

Rumpy Pumpy

Shouldn't be a problem. I was at a conference this week where the largest utilities in the world were doing nothing only boasting about their decarbonisation efforts. Seems to have moved from talking about it, to actually doing it. Plenty of challenges remain around balancing the grid, battery storage, security of supply, but nothing that technology and smart minds won't solve. All making plays into the electrification of transport and heat, home energy services, pan-European interconnectors as well.

We'll always need oil, but I'm a huge believer that it won't be long until we stop burning it.

Tuco88

Im sure we will be long past our sell by date then and get to enjoy the start of electric days. I will enjoy the last of our turf/coal/oil/petrol/diesel days for sure.

Nothing like seeing a steam engine in action... 100 degrees+ heat from a coal fired engine, black from coil/smoke,grease and sweat from the shovel and controls... And deaf from the dog barking at it.

1 bag of coil for about 50m going a steady 5mph.
Smoke as black as the hob from the stack, boiling water and steam all over the place...

Top if off with fried eggs and rashers and tea done on the engines fire..

A screaming F#ck you from the golden age to the environment, saying feck it ill be dead anyway...

zl1whqvjs75cdy

Mad Max for real obviously

Fr_Dougal

I'm a vegan, I don't use oil. Can't be sure that those animals died of natural causes.

elperello

Don't worry Bord na Mona to the rescue.
They have a cunning plan -
https://www.irishtimes.com/business/energy-and-resources/bord-na-m%C3%B3na-to-spend-60m-on-us-plant-1.3226416

RobbingBandit

Soylent fuel.

Beasty

They can go back to the old ways and cremate me in a pyre of bushes/wood....

Outlaw Pete

Gender diversity in the workplace wouldn't be as popular, that's for sure.

Zebra3

Oil will never run out.

It will get to stage where the only oil left in the ground will take more to extract than is financially worth it.

donegaLroad

mini_Sapphire wrote: »

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2014/06/28/the-world-was-533-years-of-oil-left/11528999/

Granted, the article is 3 years old but it raises an important question. What the hell are we going to do when oil runs out :O Pretty much everything you own, eat, wear etc is a byproduct of oil.

Nuclear & renewable energy power may provide our electric power but it won't create things like plastics the way oil does.

It's actually a very scary scenario if the worlds oil supply dwindles. Wars will start over it. Bio-fuel might do a bit to offer some hope but at the moment it's not advanced enough to satisfy any kind of demand... and it may never be.

Anyone have any ideas? Seems hopeless :O Modern life destroyed without oil.

Did you ever watch a documentary called 'Collapse' by American reporter Michael Ruppert. He is a bit extreme but he deals with this very subject throughout the film, in fact thats where he gets the films title, because he argues that the increase in the worlds population will create a huge demand for oil and petroleum and will eventually cause a collapse.

steddyeddy

This is an area I'm involved in. In short biologically generated fuel is the future IMHO. The hydrogen engine's another option, but a long way off.

mark_jmc

Tell Saudi Arabia what we really think of them

steddyeddy

The thing is oil is also used to make petro-chemicals like PET, polyethylene polyethylene terephthalate acid and some aliphatic plastics.

Things like plastic aren't quite as renewable as we're being led to believe either.

Professor Moriarty

steddyeddy wrote: »

The thing is oil is also used to make petro-chemicals like PET, polyethylene polyethylene terephthalate acid and some aliphatic plastics.

Things like plastic aren't quite as renewable as we're being led to believe either.

Every minute, a truck load of plastic is dumped into the sea. By 2050, the weight of plastic in the sea will exceed the weight of fish in the sea.

donegaLroad

Professor Moriarty wrote: »

Every minute, a truck load of plastic is dumped into the sea. By 2050, the weight of plastic in the sea will exceed the weight of fish in the sea.

I saw a youtube clip about some Dutch teenager who has come up with a temporary solution to this. The plan involves using large rafts with some way of collecting all the plastic pollution in the sea and recycling it on board. I'll try and find the clip (Im sure some people have seen this)

donegaLroad

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmPHBhYaCR4

steddyeddy

Professor Moriarty wrote: »

Every minute, a truck load of plastic is dumped into the sea. By 2050, the weight of plastic in the sea will exceed the weight of fish in the sea.

We have an enzyme that eats plastic and a system that converts the product into biofuels.

There's also bacteria evolving with the capability to break down plastic.

http://www.iflscience.com/environment/bacteria-evolving-eat-plastic-dump-into-oceans/

Drumpot

RobbingBandit wrote: »

Soylent fuel.

Anybody else read that like it was a Yorkshire man trying to say silent Fuel?

Rumpy Pumpy

steddyeddy wrote: »

We have an enzyme that eats plastic and a system that converts the product into biofuels.

Was that the utter claptrap that emerged from UCD a few years ago? Breathless endorsements from those involved, while the rest of the academic world cast a jaundiced eye at a University looking for a ranking point?

donegaLroad

Drumpot wrote: »

Anybody else read that like it was a Yorkshire man trying to say silent Fuel?

or Somerset even

_Brian

I don’t worry about stuff like this.

There’s really smart people somewhere working on this, they don’t come round worrying about my work so I’m not going to start worrying about theirs.

I could spend my whole time worrying about the “big picture”, but honestly I’d rather spend time with my kids, safe in the knowledge that a boffin somewhere will solve “peak oil” and all that stuff.

Nettle Soup

mini_Sapphire wrote: »

Anyone have any ideas?

Can we still eat cake?

donegaLroad

_Brian wrote: »

I don’t worry about stuff like this.

There’s really smart people somewhere working on this, they don’t come round worrying about my work so I’m not going to start worrying about theirs.

I could spend my whole time worrying about the “big picture”, but honestly I’d rather spend time with my kids, safe in the knowledge that a boffin somewhere will solve “peak oil” and all that stuff.

me too, but its nice to know that some young fella in Holland is being proactive about the plastic pollution problem, and although I know I will never reach his levels of innovation, I will teach my kids to dispose of their litter in an appropriate way in the hope that they will influence others to do the same. Its a start I suppose

Sweetemotion

Use synthetic oil?

All this, what will happen when the oil runs out. Is a big fat nothing burger.

steddyeddy

Rumpy Pumpy wrote: »

Was that the utter claptrap that emerged from UCD a few years ago? Breathless endorsements from those involved, while the rest of the academic world cast a jaundiced eye at a University looking for a ranking point?

I have no idea. You didn't exactly flood us with detail.

Doltanian

Professor Moriarty wrote: »

Every minute, a truck load of plastic is dumped into the sea. By 2050, the weight of plastic in the sea will exceed the weight of fish in the sea.

Unsurprising, all rivers invariably lead to the sea.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PavA4rUypE

Creative83

Doltanian wrote: »

Unsurprising, all rivers invariably lead to the sea.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PavA4rUypE

Holy sh** :mad:

Elessar

Like another poster said, we can synthesise oil from coal. I read somewhere that there's enough coal reserves in the US alone (including untapped or currently economically unreachable reserves) to last us a thousand years. Not to mention the current proven reserves of oil of an estimated 1.69 trillion barrels, and then theres shale oil reserves about 3.5 times that. And then there's the unproven reserves, and all the other coal and gas reserves worldwide that can be liquified.

Oil is not running out, pretty much ever.

AMKC

How about using Organic oil. Sure should be healthier for us anyway and the world too hopefully. s for the oil in the Antarctic I don,t think that should ever be extracted as there is no much at stake and the same for oil in the North Pole. Some things are best left alone.

Fanny Wank

I find "have a jimmy floyd" to be an appropriate response to most questions along the lines of the OP

Capt'n Midnight

steddyeddy wrote: »

This is an area I'm involved in. In short biologically generated fuel is the future IMHO. The hydrogen engine's another option, but a long way off.

Francois Isaac de Rivaz made the first hydrogen powered car back in 1807. It even had electric ignition.

Capt'n Midnight

Oil won't run out in the sense that most oil is to too expensive to recover from wells.

We can make oil from hydrogen from renewable energy for about four times the cost of extracting it.

jojofizzio

mark_jmc wrote: »

Tell Saudi Arabia what we really think of them

By a country mile-the best response so far-take a bow..:)

BrokenArrows

mini_Sapphire wrote: »

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2014/06/28/the-world-was-533-years-of-oil-left/11528999/

Granted, the article is 3 years old but it raises an important question. What the hell are we going to do when oil runs out :O Pretty much everything you own, eat, wear etc is a byproduct of oil.

Nuclear & renewable energy power may provide our electric power but it won't create things like plastics the way oil does.

It's actually a very scary scenario if the worlds oil supply dwindles. Wars will start over it. Bio-fuel might do a bit to offer some hope but at the moment it's not advanced enough to satisfy any kind of demand... and it may never be.

Anyone have any ideas? Seems hopeless :O Modern life destroyed without oil.

With current technology the world could go oil free in a fairly short period of time. Its just the current infrastructure which is preventing a fast transition.

If the oil were to disappear tomorrow and the world was pushed to renewable then I doubt it would take more than a few years to get back to a semi normal situation.

Capt'n Midnight

Generating energy isn't actually the problem.

Hydrocarbons are easy to store and transport. Electricity isn't.

We could power the world from solar. It would cost a bit more though, the main cost would be in storing and transporting the energy.

In theory we could expose bedrock. This would absorb C02 so we could go on burning oil.

Or we could expose olivtine (sp.) to water to produce hydrogen, but it would be a mega-project.

server down

To get back to the peak oil. The time left (now 50 years up from 30 years 30 years ago) is present day proven reserves divided by present day yearly usage.

However proven reserves are a fraction of the total known reserves. It’s oil fields now in production. In decreasing reserve sizes the categories are:

Remaining oil and gas in-place (original oil and gas in-place minus cumulative production at a specific date)
Technically recoverable resources
Economically recoverable resources
Proved reserves

Proved reserves are from existing oil fields.

Economically recoverable resources are oil fields we could now technically and economically tap, but don’t yet do it. So those fields are not proven.

Technical resources are not economically viable yet but technological changes or market price changes can affect that. The rest are known resources we can’t technically tap but new technologies - like fracking - change that.

All together there’s hundreds of years of all reserves left if you believe that we can technically and economically tap most known reseves. And that assumes present day demand continues at its modern pace. However most of they oil will stay in the ground if you believe that demand will peak soon because of renewables.

https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=17151

server down

That’s nonsense too. Solar is getting cheaper year on year and the technology is getting cheaper and more efficient every year.

Capt'n Midnight

NB. it's peak cheap oil.

we will still have oil or an equivalent but it will cost a bit more

server down

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

NB. it's peak cheap oil.

we will still have oil or an equivalent but it will cost a bit more

The cheap oil ran out before they started drilling the North Sea.

Anyway demand will likely stop rising at the rate it is now and then reverse as EVs and renewable power generators become common.

There was a day this year when 70% of the UKs energy was low carbon.