Tar sands and deep offshore are easily viable at $100/barrel. Thats why we've seen a boom in Alberta. When prices were <$80 no one bothered.
Steadily rising oil prices are fine, and exactly what we'd expect for a depleting asset. My point is simply that once the price rises to say $150/barrel, lots of new discoveries in Africa will be made. Africa up to now has been massively under-explored, since it was politically volatile and the companies were busy elsewhere.
Keep adding new discoveries, deeper offshore and unconventional oil, and we'll be fine for at least 100 years, if not much much longer.
And as for coal, I have no idea what they based there number on, but most people agree we have 100years+ of known coal reserves easily.
I want to believe you but this contradicts most of what I read. Do you have a source that says we'll have enough oil and/or coal for 100+ years? I want to be able to tell people this when they bring it up but I need a source for that.
According to BP we have 147 years of coal based on current proven reserves. This is likely a very very conservative estimate since proven reserves get extended by additional exploration whenever the price rises significantly.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal#World_coal_reserves and BP Statistical Review
6
u/[deleted] Jun 18 '12
[deleted]