[Alberta's Child]

Just look at the sheer size of the oil industry's investments in exploration and new extraction/delivery infrastructure. There's no way these companies would be investing hundreds of billions of dollars -- the equivalent of the entire GDP of many nations -- in these efforts if there was any chance in hell that oil would "run out" anytime soon.

I've seen estimates for the tar sands region of northern Alberta suggesting that the oil from that source could sustain current consumption levels in all of North America for more than 500 years. It may not be feasible to get most of it now, but in an age when technology improves in leaps and bounds over short periods of time, I'd say there's a good chance we'll eventually use almost all of it.

[Brilliant]

You might think that. On the other hand, look at the vast investment that the US auto companies made. Now, they are on the verge of bankruptcy.

I have no doubt that the oil companies will make a profit on their investment. That doesn't mean the price of oil wil not go up, though. In fact, it might be a sign that they expect the price WILL go up.