Peak Oil- Is the World Running Out of Oil?

As we see in Chapter 11 (selected sections), the oil industry has had a history of “Chicken Little” or “Boy Who Cried Wolf” periods, where there was fear and concern over the fact that we have peaked in identifying reserves, and the current rates, we would run out of oil in some imminent time frame. We learned each time that the amount of available oil is a moving target because the market forces and technological advances constantly move the goal posts. Recall that reserves represent oil that can be recovered technologically and at a cost that is practical based on the prices of oil. Clearly, when technology advances, costs go down, and/or prices go up, the amount of available oil changes. We have learned over history that in each case of concern, we either find more oil, find cheaper ways to produce, or have a demand/price situation that makes it economic to recover. Could we eventually run out of oil? Sure, but so far history has taught us that it is more likely we will make it through the scare. And with the advent of increased efficiency and new non-oil energy sources, the timeline before we run out is even longer than was ever imagined before.