Party Like It's 2146

Today the President and CEO of the Saudi Arabian oil company, Aramco, announced proudly that the earth still has 140 years of oil ready to be pumped out of the ground. See, all those chumps that subscribe to the peak oil theory are wrong. The earth isn't running out of oil. Everyone on earth can live like a North American. The party will never end. Tomorrow never comes.

The thing is that he is partly right (you weren't expecting that right). The earth probably does have about 140 years of oil left under its skin. Unfortunately it's not much of a challenge to the theory of peak oil which is the leading argument that the oil age is ending. Unfortunately I believe this statement is based on a fundamental misreading of peak oil; oil is not running out, it probably never will, but it's going to become harder to pump. The whole idea of peak oil is that oil production will peak, internationally, or perhaps it already has, and then will start to decline at which point it will be harder and harder to get the oil out of the ground. It'll still be there surely and in 140 years someone somewhere will still be pumping it at great expense but the days of plentiful and cheap oil are coming to an end. As peak oil hits, prices will rise as it gets harder and harder to get the sweet crude out of the earth.

And besides, state-owned companies like Aramco (and even private oil companies) aren't the most honest and transparent industries so I wouldn't take this CEO's word for it. This murky business probably has something to do with the fact that human civilization is based on their dwindling "product".

(Did you know that Aramco stands for Arab-American Company?)