Here are the figures straight from the official OPEC
website:
At end-2001 world proven crude oil reserves stood at 1,074,850 million barrels.
Total world oil demand in 2000 is put at 76 million barrels per day.
As world economic growth continues, crude oil demand will also rise to 90.6m b/d in 2010 and 103.2m b/d by 2020, according to the OWEM reference case
figures.
OPEC's oil reserves are sufficient to last another 80 years at the current rate of production, while non-OPEC oil producers' reserves might last
less than 20 years.
76 million * 365 days = 27.74 billion barrels per year
1,074,850 million barrels / 27.74 billion barrels = 38.74 years from 2001.
I'm inclined to think that they haven't done their math.
Based on their figures, (and you'd hope they might have a clue seeing as they do have 75% of the total world reserves), we are looking at a global
energy crisis in the next 10 years becuase they have completely ignored the hubbert peak oil effect combined with rising consumption.
There might be time to do something about this if the governments actually got their act together but some people say that its already to late.
The implications of oil shortages are mind boggling with respect to food production and population decline.
No fuel cells are not a solution