How many years' worth of petroleum is left in the ground?

LOL. 400 years of oil for the entire world in Alberta oil sands alone. So, lets assume there's a few other oil fields than can handle another 400 years between them, so around 3,000. If we can't figure out something by then we're in trouble.
 
It is continually being regenerated. It was not made "once."

It is a natural and cyclical feature of our planet.

That's right. New oil being squeezed
right now that we will never
consume – la Brea
 
It is continually being regenerated. It was not made "once."

It is a natural and cyclical feature of our planet.

That's right. New oil being squeezed
right now that we will never
consume – la Brea
That is not scientifically true. You are thinking, perhaps, of the abiotic oil hypothesis, which is pure pseudoscience.
 
So, which prediction is right? The most likely answer is neither one, given the highly speculative nature of predicting levels of demand for a global commodity so far out into the future. Chances are good that the real outcome will land somewhere in the middle of these two extremes.

You cannot see the parallel. Okay. One-track mind. I'll let someone else trot the evidence out for you.

I'm just passing time and trying to do so pleasantly.

Not refight "settled" science...
 
The idea that petroleum is formed from dead organic matter is known as the "biogenic theory" of petroleum formation and was first proposed by a Russian scientist almost 250 years ago.
In the 1950's, however, a few Russian scientists began questioning this traditional view and proposed instead that petroleum could form naturally deep inside the Earth.
This so-called "abiogenic" petroleum might seep upward through cracks formed by asteroid impacts to form underground pools, according to one hypothesis. Some geologists have suggested probing ancient impact craters in the search for oil.
Abiogenic sources of oil have been found, but never in commercially profitable amounts. The controversy isn't over whether naturally forming oil reserves exist, said Larry Nation of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists. It's over how much they contribute to Earth's overall reserves and how much time and effort geologists should devote to seeking them out.
If abiogenic petroleum sources are indeed found to be abundant, it would mean Earth contains vast reserves of untapped petroleum and, since other rocky objects formed from the same raw material as Earth, that crude oil might exist on other planets or moons in the solar system, scientists say.
Both processes for making petroleum likely require thousands of years. Even if Earth does contain far more oil than currently thought, it's inevitable that reserves will one day run out. Scientists disagree sharply, however, on when that will occur. And, some say, a global crisis could begin as soon as increasing demand is greater than supply, a possibility that might be measured in years rather than decades, some analysts argue.


Just a quickie on "settled" science


https://www.livescience.com/9404-mysterious-origin-supply-oil.html
 
You are thinking, perhaps, of the abiotic oil hypothesis, which is pure pseudoscience.
Well, not quite exactly, but:

The hypothesis by itself is not pseudoscience; however, cranks peddle the hypothesis as a fact, and this is pseudoscientific. Save for a handful of gadflies, geologists in the West and the OPEC states, the world's primary oil producers and consumers, have little use for the abiotic oil hypothesis; they have learned through experience that you can't find petroleum anywhere close to the mantle (where the hypothesis claims it is formed) due to the fact that it breaks down in the high temperatures found at depths greater than 15,000 feet, and know that decades' worth of successful oil exploration has upheld the mainstream biotic model and where it predicts oil might be found. Most of its support is found in the Russian oil industry, at least partly for ideological reasons, and even there, its supporters are a minority, albeit a vocal one.[6][7] The bastardization of the hypothesis has been used to push climate change denial arguments and ignore a diminishing amount of limited resources.

Supporters[edit]​

  1. Rush Limbaugh
  2. Jerome Corsi, who wrote a book, Black Gold Stranglehold, promoting the idea.
  3. George Noory promotes it from time to time.
  4. viewzone.com
  5. rense.com
 
When I was in high school, in the early to mid-80s, we were absolutely, positively, definitely, with great certainty, going to be out of oil by the year 2000.

Ironically, that's the year that I started working in the offshore oil patch.
 
Before my last computer crash, I had a chart that listed at least a dozen different times that we'd definitely be out of oil... but we've surpassed each and every one of them.
 
The mind that predicts global catastrophe always falls prey to the same error: the forced assumption that technology is held constant so the all future projections are based on a false assumption.

When we split the atom, there who those who thought that this could set off a chain reaction like el Sol and hence we should not even attempt it. Turns out, it was not the key to the "Little Doctor" (Ender's Game).
 
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With fifteen minute cities and travel restrictions oil will last forever. You can make engines run off of water but you will never see it because Big Oil bought up the tech years ago.
 
In 1910 the USGS estimated reserves would run out in a decade. Since then, petroleum reserve estimates have continued to rise. New exploration and extraction technologies open new doors. Offshore drilling, deeper drilling, lateral drilling, fracking, shale extraction are just a few of the innovations that keep us swimming in this versatile source of energy. A quick Google search indicates current global reserves are to last until 2050. If over a century of petroleum history is any guide, we can expect that horizon to be pushed further into the future.
 
In 1910 the USGS estimated reserves would run out in a decade. Since then, petroleum reserve estimates have continued to rise. New exploration and extraction technologies open new doors. Offshore drilling, deeper drilling, lateral drilling, fracking, shale extraction are just a few of the innovations that keep us swimming in this versatile source of energy. A quick Google search indicates current global reserves are to last until 2050. If over a century of petroleum history is any guide, we can expect that horizon to be pushed further into the future.

Ha. You sounded optimistic until you got to the 2050 part.
 
Of course, the advisability of leaving the oil in the ground unburnt, just so it doesn't add CO2 to the atmosphere, is a completely different discussion.
 
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