The Last Oil Well

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With oil corporations raking in record profits around the globe, and fuel prices reaching ridiculous levels at the pumps over the past summer, people are beginning to look beyond the tips of their noses and realize that something is happening. 

Over the past year we have seen the price of crude oil climb to $147 a barrel, inflating fuel prices above the $4 a gallon mark in the U.S., and then plummet to roughly $43 dollars a barrel.  What is causing the dramatic swing in oil prices, and how long will the current oil price stand?  The answers may shock you, and the outcome will most definitely affect you.   

Before mankind began tapping Earth’s underground oil resources, scientists are quite certain the planet had roughly 2000 billion barrels (not gallons) of oil trapped beneath the surface.  To put it another way, you could start lining the 2000 billion barrels of oil up, side-by-side, around the Earth’s equator, and circle the Earth 28,523 times. 

Or to put it another way, that line of oil barrels would stretch out 710,227,272 miles – which would stretch from the Earth to the Sun almost 8 times.  That’s a tremendous amount of oil.   As mankind began exploring and understanding the planet’s resources, oil was quickly identified as having important qualities. 

The Chinese were the first to start extracting oil from the vast underground supply in 347 CE.  The wells were approximately 800 feet deep and bamboo pipes linked the wells to salt springs, where the oil was burned to evaporate brine and produce salt.  Later, during the 13th century, Marco Polo described oil fields near Baku and Azerbaijan that were being exploited to produce flammable liquids for the petroleum industry.  He stated that at one seep, enough oil was spewing from the ground that hundreds of shiploads of oil could be taken at one time.  The oil industry was born.  

It wasn’t until the 20th century, however, that the real oil boom began.  Henry Ford introduced the world to the Model T, and a new revolution was born.  Henry Ford’s dream was to open the world’s wide open places to everyone, and that he did.  This new car wasn’t originally designed to solely run on gas, as you might think.  Henry was photographed with the Model T in front of a corn field, and advertised the car as running on both ethanol and gasoline.  As the price of gasoline dropped, ethanol slowly took a back seat, and was completely forgotten once prohibition took hold in the United States.   

As the auto industry grew, another future major consumer of petroleum products was introduced to the world.  In 1903, two brothers from Ohio made headlines when they flew the world’s first airplane into the breezes of North Carolina’s Kill Devil Hills.  The Wright Flyer, which only held a few gallons of gasoline, was hardly considered a gas guzzler.  But as people continued to globalize, newer and bigger aircraft came on to the scene.  Today, a modern 747 jumbo jet holds 57,000 gallons of jet fuel.  

Through the 1900’s, the world experienced two World Wars and countless smaller wars as countries fought amongst themselves, and with other parts of the world.  Billions of gallons of oil were consumed during these times for warships, tanks, jeeps, aircraft and hundreds of things I can’t even think of. 

One car families became two car families, people bought boats, airplanes, motorcycles, ATV’s, generators, chainsaws, lawnmowers, etc., etc, - all mainly in the United States.   If you look at the numbers, all of the world’s oil consumption up to the year 1900 doesn’t even show up as an oil drip when compared to the last 100 years. 

The world’s oil supply is down to 1000 billion barrels of oil, meaning we have used half of the planet’s supply.  In one hundred years, we have reduced the planet’s supply of oil by half.  In 2003 alone, the world consumed 28 billion barrels of oil.  If you divide the remaining oil, 1000 billion barrels, by 28 billion barrels per year (which, by the way, has gone up every year since 2003) you get 36 years of oil left.  Now take into consideration population and economic growth, add that to the figure, and you can roughly guess that we have 25 years of oil left.   But that’s just the beginning. 

So far we have consumed half of the world’s oil.  This is what geologists and oil gurus refer to as Oil Peak.  The first 1000 billion barrels of oil was relatively easy to get to.  The last half is going to be harder to find, and harder to drill.  Harder means one thing – higher expenses – which will ultimately be passed on to the consumers.  

What does this mean to oil producing countries like Iraq, Iran, and Saudi Arabia?  They are going to try and make as much money as they can before the oil runs dry, because once the oil is gone, all they have is sand.  The Saudi Oil Minister, Ali Al-Naimi, told 60 Minutes last week that his country has 50 years of oil left, which is yet to be seen.   

Recent gas prices have dropped to roughly $1.60 per gallon across the United States, and people are filling their tanks once again.  This was a timely decrease with the holidays approaching, but it wasn't due to the government handing out Christmas presents. 

Citizens around around the world are demanding that their governments start thinking about their energy futures.  With the high fuel prices that hit the globe last summer, who can blame them?  People are beginning to realize how much power the Middle East has on the world, and want to break free from the volatile Middle Eastern energy grip.  

That is the last thing the governments of oil producing countries want to hear.  People are selling their SUVs and buying smaller, more economical cars along with hybrids. They are selling their boats, keeping their airplanes grounded, and global corporations are slimming down and becoming Green.  SUV and other non-economical cars sales have gone in the toilet, causing three of the United States largest car manufacturers to beg the U.S. government for a multi billion dollar bailout.                      

This is why fuel prices have dropped so dramatically over the last couple of months.  The oil producing countries of the world want you to keep buying fuel, and if it’s cheap, why would you want to switch to something else?  Switching is inconvenient, costly, and takes up your valuable time.  That is what the leaders of oil corporations and oil producing countries are counting on.  

As we slide down the backside of Oil Peak to oil extinction, we should really look at ourselves, our situation, and start changing now.  Not only because we have to (oil WILL run dry) but because it’s the responsible thing to do.  Thirty-five years will go by in a blink of an eye, and switching to a new energy source will take time.  Look at the difficulty people are going to face in January just switching from analog to digital television.  

Today, entrepreneurs around the globe see the need for change, and the chance to profit from the changing energy world.  As Henry Ford stated, the original car was designed to run on both ethanol and gasoline.  The crops that produce ethanol: corn, sugar cane, wheat and many others, can be grown in your own country, providing jobs that are currently being manned in the Middle East and other areas.  Ethanol burns much cleaner than gasoline, and the prices are comparable.  Even if your car isn’t rated to run on ethanol, you can install a conversion kit made by Fuel Flex International in about 20 minutes for under $500.00.  By running your vehicles on home grown ethanol, you keep your money in your own country, not in some unstable region on the Middle East.  The downside to ethanol is its availability.  This is a growing market, and finding fuel pumps that offer E85 is sometimes difficult.  It is currently impossible to drive across the United States solely on E85.  The beauty of the Fuel Flex kit is its flexibility.  You can fill you gas tank with either ethanol or gasoline, as long as you have a fuel injected engine.   As we enter the 21st century, new fuels such as hydrogen, which only emits oxygen and water as a by-product, are looking very promising.  As with any new technology coming online, the prices will be high and somewhat inconvenient at first, but will pave the way for the new energy future.  As these new energy sources begin to surface, do your homework and do your best to keep up with all the new technology.  This will prove to be a new era in human technology, as we go from black to green, and the last of the oil wells run dry.  For more information on alternative fuel sources, visit fuelflexint.com.