http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/letters/story.html?id=325a2fcb-96 b1-4a69-b73f-b5a356949b53 Future oil supply really is a problem Letter, Wednesday, December 20, 2006 Re: "There is plenty of oil around" (Letters, Dec. 18). The Cambridge Energy Research Associates might be right in the very short term. However, they base their predictions on the size of oil reserves that includes oil that might be manufactured from tar sands, oil shale and other unconventional sources. On the other hand, the "peak -oil" people are concerned about production rates. For example, we cannot recover tar from the tar sands and convert it to synthetic crude oil fast enough to have a significant impact on filling world oil demand. Today, such oil represents about one per cent of world consumption and might rise to about 2.5 per cent in 2015. The only reason sources such as the tar sands are being exploited today is because oil in oil wells is now very difficult to find and recover. The 15 billion barrels of oil recently discovered in the Gulf of Mexico would last the world about six months at the current consumption rate of 30 billion barrels a year. Because oil provides 95 per cent of our transportation energy, there really is a problem with future oil supply. H. Douglas Lightfoot Baie d'Urfe -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.432 / Virus Database: 268.15.25/593 - Release Date: 12/19/2006 1:17 PM
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