What Will Happen When We Run Out of Oil?

The dwindling supplies of crude oil will cause massive changes in our economy. Because of the rampant increase of people driving, the rising demands for gasoline alone is a monumental concern. Gas prices are influenced by many factors including the world supply of oil. The truth is that there is probably more oil to be discovered somewhere, but the costs of drilling it in far off remote areas or deep under the ocean floor will get too costly to pursue. It will be too expensive to find; we won’t be able to afford it. Most likely, the rising costs will force us to develop other energy sources.

Oil companies start out exploring for oil in the easiest places, costing the least to drill and bring to the surface. They go to the areas closest to their refineries to cut costs in transportation. This enables the costs to the end consumer to be kept in line. Once the nearby places are tapped out, the oil companies go elsewhere to find oil which might be harder to harvest. If the oil supply continues to get harder and harder to find, unfortunately, it will continue to get more and more expensive.

However, there is always a possibility for surprising good news to surface too. Recently, scientists from Cornell University discovered an enormous amount of oil off the coast of Louisiana. The find is some 60 billion barrels or three times more than the current US recoverable oil of 20 billion barrels. This discovery should bring the United States total oil reserves to 80 billion barrels which is on par with Venezuela. In comparison to other finds around the world, this is twice the size of all oil ever found in the North Sea and six times larger than the estimates of the Alaskan Artic National Wildlife Refuge oil deposits.

A new method of oil discovery known as “gas washing” was used to find this area of about 10,000 square miles. It was found under layers of salt domes. With this method, geologist are able to track the movement of oil deposits by the way they interact with the flow of natural gas. It helps scientists to make extremely accurate 3D-seismic maps of deep underground oil deposits and mitigate the risk involved in drilling such deep under water wells.

A team lead by a chemical geologist from Cornell and funded by a grant from Chevron discovered the oil with information gathered from source rocks deep below the sea. Because of the devastation left by the hurricanes Katrina and Rita there is a critical shortage of equipment and manpower to do the kind of recovery work needed to bring the oil to the surface. At the present, crews are working hard to get the necessary equipment to the area to conduct more tests. It is estimated that it won’t be until 2010 before oil will be pumped from the found area.

Oil companies like Triple Diamond Energy Corporation are always pleased when the new oil discoveries are made within the United States. Of course, it is discoveries like this which make the United States self sufficient and contribute to being less dependent on foreign oil. So, what will happen when we run out of oil? Maybe we won’t.