Is the Oil Spigot Running Dry?

Scripps Howard News Service ^ | 5/6/04 | Michael Fumento

[techcor]

Doesn't matter. Coal supplies can last a thousand years. Coal gassification can turn coal into gasoline. Hydrocarbons Technologies and a Chinese corporation are going ahead on this technologies and should have a plant running in China in the summer of 2005. They should be able to produce gas at $1.35 per gallon.

[Blood of Tyrants]

Yep, the Germans invented this process when their access to petroleum was cut off by advancing allied troops.

[G-Bear]

And now there is a theory that petroleum is not actually a
"fossil" fuel, but a natural, and ongoing, process. So we
may NEVER "run out of oil."

[motzman]

"I did not know that"

Thanks for the info.

[biblewonk]

What we really need is more windmills.

[stylin19a]

yeah, but not in my back yard.

[AIC]

Better still. Make more and cheaper non-gasoline automobiles.

[1Old Pro]

Not a word about refinery capacity. I thought there was plenty of oil already pumped. THE PROBLEM IS THAT ENVIRONUTS HAVE NOT ALLOWED NEW REFINERIES.

[Koblenz]

SASOL has also been very active in this segment, because during apartheid, South Africa needed to ensure that it could get oil. SASOL gets gasoline from coal.

[Mind-numbed Robot]

And now there is a theory that petroleum is not actually a "fossil" fuel, but a natural, and ongoing, process. So we may NEVER "run out of oil."

I read about this a few years ago. Supposedly depleted fields mysteriously filled up again.

[LS]

In the last three years (and this include years AFTER the period of Fumento's column), both Iran and Egypt (as I recall) announced huge new oil discoveries of hundreds of billions of barrels. These announcements came within six months of each other, I think, back in the summer of 2002.

[techcor]

Yep, and in the 70's they were able to develop about 4 different process. If Bush were to push this technology forward just a little , the oil producing nations would increase their production to try and kill it .

[John H K]

Supposedly depleted fields mysteriously filled up again

Theory's basically a crock. It's really popular among people who really don't know their stuff, but petroleum geologists make fun of it. The field that "mysteriously filled up" turned out to be connected to another field through a fault.

[newgeezer]

Or, alas, to pander to the gasohol lobby.

With EPA and CARB mandating oxygenated boutique blends, this guy singles out the "gasohol" lobby to rail on, eh? No such disdain for MTBE (an oil-based product), eh?

[wideminded]

Coal supplies can last a thousand years.

Perhaps at current rates of usage. But usage grows exponentially. Also you just proposed a way to use it up even faster.

[techcor]

Also you just proposed a way to use it up even faster.

Actually what I proposed is for two slightly different sources to compete for the same market. Also, since the coal source is set to last for a long time, I think future generations will have nuclear power by then.
Here's another interesting concept. In India there are many workers who make there living off of charcoal production. There may be an economical way for those charcoal producers to become gasoline producers. It would probably only be economical in countries where the gasoline price is artificially high (taxes).

[MAWG]

There are plenty of proven oil reserves off the coast of California and Florida in shallow water, less than 200 feet. These fields along with all the oil in Alaska is enough to supply this country with oil for the next 200 years. By that time, we can develop adequate alternative energy sources. I live in Texas where oil has been drilled for and refined for over a hundred years. It's time all you whining/enviro/fags in Ca. and Fl. suck it up and give this nation a way out of the Middle East dependency on oil. We dont need their oil.