More Oil

[cheap]

Every couple of months a new oil discovery, like this

http://www.smh.com.au/business/minin...18-1059vv.html

I know the world will eventually run out of oil, but that point seems to be a long long long way off. Lets hope this is high grade oil, easily exploited and locally refined, Australia sure could use the stuff to keep our high standard of living going a bit longer.

[cs123]

I don't think supply is an issue. It's what happens when you burn the stuff that has a lot of people worried.

[Lotte]

Sustainability of supply is the biggest issue around oil.
Next in line is sustainability of use of oil products.

It'll be interesting to see how this pans out. Either way though, it'll just help the industry sector to continue to plateu for another few years.

[zilo]

The Chines and Americans will be pleased we will give it to them for 10c a litre.

[buggerlugs]

Originally Posted by zilo

The Chines and Americans will be pleased we will give it to them for 10c a litre.

And then buy it back refined at $1.10 a litre, a bit like our wood chip.............

[ILLaViTaR]

Originally Posted by buggerlugs

And then buy it back refined at $1.10 a litre, a bit like our wood chip.............

That's obviously better than refining it here and creating our own industry/jobs for some great reason!!!

(edit, should see our power bills and how cheap we export coal to the Chinese for!!)

[Franco Cozzo]

Originally Posted by zilo

The Chines and Americans will be pleased we will give it to them for 10c a litre.

And then we laugh all the way to the bank too thinking we're smart

[2011G6E]

There are still suspicions that the bulk of the oil reserves in a lot of places is being created by a biomass deep in the Earth of bacteria. There have been wells that have "replenished" after being abandoned many years before.

[zilo]

Originally Posted by 2011G6E

There are still suspicions that the bulk of the oil reserves in a lot of places is being created by a biomass deep in the Earth of bacteria. There have been wells that have "replenished" after being abandoned many years before.

That's a good one...what source do you rely on for that info?

[cheap]

Originally Posted by zilo

That's a good one...what source do you rely on for that info?

There are a number of theories as to the origin of oil, but of course the stuff we are taught in primary school about it being ancient bogs, forests, algae and dinosaurs seems to be the most popular. But what if it weren't entirely true?

[Spudz27]

When I read things like this it just maked me mad. We are paying heaps for fuel with govco wanting to increase the excise, yet we have so much oil that we could refine ourselves and just sell a portion off to the overseas market.

[mik]

Interesting times ahead, we really still are guessing on so many scientific fronts, we may have a magnetic pole shift one day on our little earth(this happens periodically every so many hundred thousand years apparently), current concensus is that earth it self would also flip upside down, the sun would then rise in the west and set in the east .......... will the oil drain to the bottom ?? We wouldn't be down under any more .

[bobthebilda]

It doesnt really matter, the earth is never going to run out of oil anyhow. Even as this article says, the field may contain 60 million barrels, but they are only likely to ever recover 30 million barrels. The main issue comes down to how much energy in future, it takes to get oil out of the ground. 50 years ago, they drilled a hole on the land in Saudia Arabia, and 10,000 barrels would spill out a day, every day for 50 years plus. Today, they have to spend hundreds of millions of dollars, to drill a hole kilometres out to sea, to get 10,000 barrels a day, for a few years. When they first started drilling for oil, they were getting over 100 units of energy, for every unit of energy they put into the project. Today the average about 10 to 15 units of energy recovered for every unit spent. Obviously once it gets down to 1 for 1, it becomes pointless, ie, you are not going to use one barrel of oil to get one barrel of oil out of the ground.

But most importantly, we are getting closer to the point, that oil extraction does not have a benefit to human society. Apart from costs that cant be attributed ( global warming, storm costs, rising sea levels etc), oil extraction of the future, is relying on the benefit of cheap and easy oil extracted before today. At some time in the future we will not have sufficient oil left over, to build the roads, build the oil platforms, fly the planes and helicopters, power the pumps etc etc, to look for more oil.

[danzvtil]

Australia is hooked into the world price of oil, so it is a little simplistic to say and oil from here is "ours" and we can buy it cheap.
The problem with oil supply, if worldwide supply were to INCREASE every year for the next 20 years, the price will still skyrocket. It may have something to do with the millions of new "middle class" drivers in India and China who now need this oil just as much as we do.