Yes, I do see oil prices rising irrevokably in the not-too distant future. I would expect that we should start feeling the crunch within 2 years, with a full scale economy crash within 5, if current reserve estimates are even remotely correct, and nothing more is done than is already done. Matthew Simmons is correct. The petroleum geologists agree. The only people that don't see this as a major problem are the economists, who think that growth without end is actually possible.

Originally posted by Ouizel
The only people that don't see this as a major problem are the economists, who think that growth without end is actually possible.

Um, no, economists don't think that. Investment advisors, on the other hand, and their counterparts on "business television" and in the media who want to hype up the markets for their own profit... they might think that, or rather want you to imagine that they think that.

Anyways the oil companies are sitting on all these alternative energy patents, preventing alternative fuels from being developed and exploited. Once the market price of oil goes high enough, they'll budge. And yeah, it's not going to be pretty for the economy. Any suggestions?

I'd be interested to know how Peak oil issues effect other petrochemical products, as well as gas prices.

I imagine it to be a threefold problem.

1/ Oil products used as an energy source in industry getting more expensive
2/ Oil products used as a material for manufacturing (e.g. plastics etc) getting more expensive
3/ Oil products used in transportation. (petrol/diesel for cars, trucks, trains, planes etc)

For problem 1, industrial energy, I expect rising prices to lead to more use of alternative sources such as natural gas, nuclear or other sources.

For problem 2, I don't know. Products will change, we'll be forced to recycle more, we may even go back to natural materials in many cases. I expect molecular engineering and other advanced sciences to lead us to new methods of fabrication as well. We may eventually be able to "grow" what we need biologically...

AS for transport, this may be the area that suffers. It's one thing being able to implement a new technology in an industrial setting, but transport has so many extra requirements such as size, weight etc it may be much longer till we find real solutions.

We're actually not far from $7 a gallon for gas/petrol in the UK right now. Then again the UK is smaller and much more densely populated. We don't need to travel as far by car each day to get to work, shops, etc. so high prices don't have as bad an effect as they might in the US.

Just Google for "Peak Oil". There are plenty of websites. Some of them paint extremely grim pictures of the not-too-distant future. Others say it's won't be so bad, but it'll be very different, still others say that Peak Oil is a myth. I'm not sure which to believe, but I'm preparing myself anyway.

I was thinkin that if its true that oil reaches 7$.....Well..bad things..really really bad things..catch my drift?

Unless of coarse our govt.(or anyones govt.) had some secret fuel technology just waiting for oil to max out...well..we can hopelol

Sauron, You've never been to the UK have you?

Originally posted by Nerdling
Sauron, You've never been to the UK have you?

Actually I’m from Belfast Northern Ireland originally, I haven’t been back in 30 years

I'm thinking we are all gonna have to ride those Segway scooters and live in cities. Its gonna be one rough future!

You know what the sad thing is, even with the fossil fuel crisis Bush's plan to introduce hydrogen fuel is based on the fact that oil will be used to produce the hydrogen, effectively eliminating the whole purpose of hydrogen fuels.

The oil industry is definately the parasitic leech on mankind!

Originally posted by daeldren
You know what the sad thing is, even with the fossil fuel crisis Bush's plan to introduce hydrogen fuel is based on the fact that oil will be used to produce the hydrogen, effectively eliminating the whole purpose of hydrogen fuels.

The oil industry is definately the parasitic leech on mankind!

The biggest problem is that too many people in power are tied too closely to the oil industry. What we need to do is develop new energy sources that are not tied to oil at all.

A lot of people have a lot of good ideas, but they don't have the resources to develop them and put them into production.

Originally posted by Sauron
are we being manipulated? Is there a conspiracy here?
Mind you its’ just one Eastern country saying this, could it be disinformation? To make us think the Western powers are lying to us again

Well, I know that at least Norway is not crying because of the high oil-prices.
I bet there are other actors on the market who make a few bucks as well.

This is precisely why I haven't bought a car yet. When I was 16 I started hearing about all this, and the problem is gaining momentum at an exponential rate.

When the world DOES decide to use another form of energy.... I'll only hope that I can convert a DeLorean to use it.

high gas prices like that spell bad news. for 7$ a gollon we might as well all use methol alcohol (mainly for drag racing). fortunately it will be an easy swap for me!

I figure the hydrogen in place of gas will be the means to charge us for something we could have had for free anyway.

The PTB probably have free energy or something close (90%eff. solar cells) and will make the energy to make the hydrogen, then sell it to us as they did gas. Since there is no way they could charge people for something they can get them self. People will fall for it since hydrogen is much like gas and probably has the upper hand on a pure electric car.

I feel that if they really wanted a solution to the recharge, weight and life time issues with batterys in electric cars, they should develop capacitors to have energy densitys that exceed lead acid and weigh 3-5 times less then a lead acid of the same energy.

Originally posted by Hellmutt

Well, I know that at least Norway is not crying because of the high oil-prices.
I bet there are other actors on the market who make a few bucks as well.

- anyone connected with oil production is going to loving the prices at the moment.

As has been said the UK proves the market will already 'bear' approx $7(per imp gallon!)....so you can bet the sights are set higher.

Still, we can at least all comfort ourselves on the thought of the massive (completely 'unearned') wind-fall profits this hike has generated for Bush and his big-oil mates, huh?

Watch out for that latest terror alert now y'all!

Ethanol. We have entire states that grow nothing but corn. Get the picture?

Corn. Greedy arab monarchies, terrorists, and sleaze bag enron jokers, beware. Good luck bombing the state of Iowa.

There are three things I can think of this morning that Americans will buy no matter what it cost:

Gas
Cigarettes
Coffee