Think that gas prices are high? According to Dan Dorfman of The New York Sun, we may be seeing much higher gas prices in just three years. How high? Try $10 a gallon.
The forecasts calling for a jump to between $7 and $10 a gallon are based on the view that the price of crude is on its way to $200 in two to three years. [...]
Early last year, with a barrel of oil trading in the low $50s and gasoline nationally selling in a range of $2.30 to $2.50 a gallon, Mr. Gaines — in an impressive display of crystal ball gazing — accurately predicted oil was $100-bound and that gasoline would follow suit by reaching $4 a gallon.
His latest prediction of $200 oil is open to question, since it would undoubtedly create considerable global economic distress. Further, just about every energy expert I talk to cautions me to expect a sizable pullback in oil prices, maybe to between $50 and $70 a barrel, especially if there's a global economic slowdown.
While Mr. Gaines thinks there could be a temporary decline in the oil price, he's convinced an overall uptrend is unstoppable. In fact, he thinks his $200 forecast could be conservative, and that perhaps $250 could be reached. His reasoning: a combination of shrinking supply and increasing demand, especially from China, India, and America.
http://www2.nysun.com/article/75363 - via Boing Boing
*sigh*
"This high-quality oil isn’t controlled by Moslem zealots, or hidden under a federal wildlife refuge. Moreover, it can now be cost-effectively retrieved with computer-directed horizontal oil wells, probably at $20 to $40 per barrel."
http://www.canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/2561
"Three oil companies have found 15 billion barrels of oil 28,000 feet under the Gulf of Mexico—boosting U.S. proven reserves 50 percent."
"The U.S. could now start harvesting a “super giant” gas field—500 trillion cubic feet—from the Marcellus Shale under the Appalachian Mountains. Again, it would require the horizontal drilling and rock fracturing."
"Brazil has discovered the third largest oil field in history, the Carioca, 170 miles offshore under 6,000 feet of water. The Carioca ranks behind only the Saudi and Kuwait fields discovered 60 years ago."
"The USGS agrees the world has harvested only about one-third of the oil we’ve discovered, not to mention six trillion barrels of tar sands and huge amounts of oil shale already found but not exploited."
"Even in North America, we are not running out of fuels. Between the Bakken, the Marcellus Shale, Alberta’s tar sands, and two centuries worth of coal, North America is rich in fossil fuels. What we now face is our own decision not to use them."
http://www.canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/2752
"Most coal today is used for electricity but the governor’s plan is to turn Montana’s billions of tons of untapped coal into a liquid diesel fuel for our cars."
"Schweitzer wants to take coal that’s been pressurized into a gas, and then use something called the Fischer-Tropsch process to convert that gas into a clean diesel fuel, similar to what is made at a demonstration plant in Oklahoma."
"We can produce this fuel for about $1 a gallon... ," he said."
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/02/24/60minutes/main1343604.shtml
There is no current or future shortage of oil, only a shortage of political leadership. Ultimately, you will get the energy prices you vote for.
Oh the irony. The tar sands and shales use more oil like CheeseDuck pointed out than they produce. It has to be the silliest thing I've seen. :(
If anything this has fueled my support for public transport and for my decision to buy a Vespa or a Scooter for my travels around the city.
Art. If only it were that simple. Tar sands and shale not only require a massive energy investment to harvest, but in the process of harvesting them they put out a huge amount of pollution. We start to harvest those fields you're talking about to any large extent and things would get a lot nastier fast.
1.227 trillion barrels
Total world extractable oil resources in 2008:
1.331 trillion barrels
Gasoline is already nearly $10 a barrel in most of Europe.
The Stone Age didn't end because we ran out of stones, the Bronze Age didn't end because we ran out of bronze. The Oil Age won't come to an end because we run out of oil.
The billions of barrels of oil in the Bakken oil fields under North Dakota can be extracted using high tech horizontal drilling techniques for between 40-45 dollars a barrel. As the technology improves we will have access to more oil at cheaper prices.
Coal can be liquified for between 35-40 dollars a barrel. The process yields a clean-burning, high-performing fuel that requires no engine modifications.
Once we demonstrate the will to use our own resources, we will have essentially set a competitive price cap on OPEC's production. The international price of oil will drop to the competitive price.
and for the americans: most of europe already pays close or more that 10 dollar a gallon.
It makes petrol, diesel,or aviation fuel, fixes CO2, can be made using non potable water, is a sealed system, returns up to 100,000 litres per acre per year.
7% of the non atrable land in texas turned over to algae could run the entire US fleet of cars.
And if you guys were willing to make your cars even REMOTELY fuel efficient, either by engine improvements or weight reduction, preferably both, you could be net exporters of fuel.
There's nothing wrong with the Internal combustion engine, just the fuel.
Also cut the saudis off at the knees and send them back into the desert with nothing, there to rant and rave about their crazy brand of Islam.
All of the Worlds aviation could be handled by a plot of land the size of Belgium.
The problem is not oil reserves, the problem is CO2 build up.
Besides, fossil fuels are to valuable in the production of complex plastics to waste on running cars.
Think of yourselves as lucky, folks. You get cheap gas over there.
Biofuel from algae is a brilliant option, as is biofuel made from recycled vegetable oil - all that grease from all those fast food joints could go to good use.
The first step is for us to accept that no resource is unlimited - more reuse, more recylcling, more walking, more sharing resources. Why is it so frickin expensive to buy a train ticket in America!? And why do all our cars get such measly gas mileage compared to those in other parts of the world....
I LIVE 10 MINUTES AWAY FROM MY WORK I DONT RIDE A BIKE BUT I THINK I AM FROM NOW ON
THE ONLY FLAW I SEE IS STUPID PEOPLE THAT DRIVE THEIR CARS LIKE MAINIACS BUT THEN AGAIN SHIT HAPPENS :)
THAT AND A LOT OF AMERICANS ARE REALLY FAT AND OUT OF SHAPE HENS BIGGER CARS FOR THEIR BIGGER BUTS :p
Got MPGs? Suckers!