Rath said:
That's only oil sands, there's a lot of conventional oil out there still too. I'm not saying we're going to run out straight away - just that we're going to start having less than before. With the current rate of oil discovery compared to the current rate of oil consumption it simply isn't sustainable forever. Peak oil doesn't mean all oil is going to stop, it just means it will slowly wind down. |
The only problem is a lot of this info comes from "proven" oil reserves, which isn't just oil reserves that are obtainable technologically (which it should be), it also takes into account politics. Then there's the fact that the chart you posted is info from 2002. A lot can change in 10 years. Of course, they're also very pessimistic. If you look at at the previous years, you'll see how greatly it fluctuates. Some years there is barely any new oil discovered, while others there is a lot of newly discovered oil. With new technology, one can never truly know how much oil we will discover in the future.
Then you also have the topic of unconventional reserves, which are ones we know about, but would take longer to either obtain or refine. With newer technology, however, these will become easier and cheaper to obtain and process. Here's a chart to compare both proven and unproven/unconventional numbers. Numbers are from 2002, as well, and are in billions of barrels.
