Peak oil

[Marina]

It's ok, all we need to do is Nuke all of the remaining rainforests, wait 300 million years & "hey presto" - OIL!!!

I think most oil is formed as marine deposits, and only takes around 15 million years to form.

There were huge oil deposits off the Dorset coast in what is now the Channel until about 1/2 million years ago, larger than the Middle East oil fields by some accounts. But nearly all of it was washed away by the time humans turned up

[expat]

I think most oil is formed as marine deposits, and only takes around 15 million years to form.

There were huge oil deposits off the Dorset coast in what is now the Channel until about 1/2 million years ago, larger than the Middle East oil fields by some accounts. But nearly all of it was washed away by the time humans turned up

It must have gone somewhere.

[TimberWolf]

I think most oil is formed as marine deposits, and only takes around 15 million years to form.

Hmm, isn't this open to conjecture? That is, that fossil biomass (from vegetation) can create oil as well as coal. Anyway depolymerization can convert almost any biomass to oil, and in a lot less than 15 million years. I think I saw Ray Mears make oil form Birch bark once, and some scientist mimic oil production in a test tube, just by heating coal or similar.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_depolymerization

[Marina]

It must have gone somewhere.

Broken up by ultraviolet light and/or gobbled up by bacteria. Crude oil is pretty noxious short-term, a few months say, but I'd guess nature can absorb vast amounts quite easily over tens of thousands of years.

[Clippy]

I think most oil is formed as marine deposits, and only takes around 15 million years to form.

There were huge oil deposits off the Dorset coast in what is now the Channel until about 1/2 million years ago, larger than the Middle East oil fields by some accounts. But nearly all of it was washed away by the time humans turned up

Wow, what a sexy 'woman' you are.

[Tensai]

They said crap like this in the 80's. Scare stories like all the worlds supply of gas and oil would be used by the year 2000.

[/oileconomics101/]
"Running out" of oil has always been a dumb phrase. It's question of what's economic to get at. At $50/barrel, there's a relatively small amount that's economically viable to get at. The higher the price, the more oil there is available (aka there's a business case to get it to market.)

Having said that, the extraction costs are going up all the time, a lot of the new finds are in v.v.v deep water or otherwise a nightmare to get at. Not to mention the service sector in the industry screwing the oil companies for huge amounts for their services. Not me, naturally....