Search RFC: |                                     
Please support my efforts by advertising!
Serving a Pleasant Blend of Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow™
Vintage Magazines
Electronics World
Popular Electronics
Radio & TV News
QST | Pop Science
Popular Mechanics
Radio-Craft
Radio-Electronics
Short Wave Craft
Electronics | OFA
Saturday Eve Post
Please Support My Advertisers!

Aegis Power | Centric RF | RFCT
Alliance Test | Empower RF
Isotec | Reactel | SF Circuits

Formulas & Data

Electronics | RF
Mathematics
Mechanics | Physics


About | Sitemap
Homepage Archive

Resources

Articles, Forums, Radar
Magazines, Museum
Radio Service Data
Software, Videos


Artificial Intelligence

Entertainment

Crosswords, Humor Cogitations, Podcast
Quotes, Quizzes

Parts & Services

1000s of Listings

Please support RF  Cafe's GoFundMe campaign! Software: RF Cascade Workbook | Espresso Engineering Workbook
RF Stencils for Visio | RF Symbols for Visio | RF Symbols for Office | Cafe Press
Temwell Filters

No Shortage of Oil
Kirt's Cogitations™ #73

RF Cafe University"Factoids," "Kirt's Cogitations," and "Tech Topics Smorgasbord" are all manifestations of my ranting on various subjects relevant (usually) to the overall RF Cafe theme. All may be accessed on these pages:

 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37

< Previous                      Next >

 

No Shortage of Oil

Predictions of oil supplies drying up within a few years have been common over the last 150 years, despite estimates of the total amount of oil resources still in the ground continually growing throughout the 20th century. In 1920, the U.S. Geological Survey announced that the world's total store of oil amounted to 60 billion (60B) barrels. In 1950, the world's total oil endowment was estimated at around 600B barrels. From 1970 through 1990, the estimates increased to between 1,500B and 2,000B barrels. In 1994, the U.S. Geological Survey raised the estimate to 2,400B barrels, and the 2000 estimate was of a 3,000B-barrel endowment. This is possible because the world's oil endowment is much larger than its oil reserves, which are identified resources that can be economically extracted and refined using current technology. As new technologies increase the amount of recoverable oil, and market prices encourage new exploration and development, the world's total endowment goes up. That does not even include unconventional oil resources like oil shales, for example, which could easily be as large as 14,000B barrels. More than 500 years of oil supply are now known to exist at 2000 production rates, and does not include other fossil fuels, such as natural gas and coal.

Temwell Filters