• Question: In how long is the whole world's supply of oil going to run out?

    Asked by conn207 to Antonia, Douglas, Hugh, Matt, Tom on 15 Jun 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Matthew Hurley

      Matthew Hurley answered on 13 Jun 2010:

      I did a project when I was in year 8 about nuclear fuel – I think then they thought there was about 30 years of oil left. I think the real answer is that no-one knows – oil takes thousands of years to be made and we’re clearly using it up at a much quicker rate. We’re therefore getting low and it’s taking much more effort to find and extract the oil that there is (which is why we’re in the middle of the ocean trying to get it out!). I suppose we ‘run out’ when it’s too difficult (or too expensive) to extract any more.

    • Photo: Hugh Roderick

      Hugh Roderick answered on 15 Jun 2010:

      Well, oil running out isn’t so much the problem as it becoming too expensive to get out of the ground (or from below the sea). That is a hard thing to predict as there is no accurate way of measuring how much oil there is or how technology will change to allow us to get at oil we couldn’t reach before. There are estimates that say we have already reached the maximum amount of oil production that we will ever be able to achieve, other estimates say that won’t happen for many years yet. But either way there will come a point when we will have to change the way we live our lives as the oil runs out because it isn’t just petrol for cars that requires oil, it’s petrol for the lorries that transport our food and all the other items we buy in the shops, the fuel for the boats and planes that bring our food into the country (we wouldn’t be able to produce enough food to feed ourselves if it wasn’t for imported food). Oil is also needed for processes that make all plastics. So I think it doesn’t matter when oil runs out we should start doing something about the way we live our lives now while we can choose our solutions and hopefully improve them over time before we have a big change forced upon us when we aren’t ready. And never mind the climate change being inflicted by the burning of oil!

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