Reserves of oil and gas

On a uniform calorific value basis, coal constitutes 69% of the total estimated recoverable resources of fossil fuel in the United States. Petroleum and natural gas are about 7% and oil in oil shale, which is not as of this writing used as a fuel, is about 23%. The 1989 total recoverable reserves of coal are about 500 times the 1989 aimual production (2), whereas the reserves of oil and gas are smaller, the production and consumption rate of oil and gas in the United States is three times that of coal. 

Countries in the Middle East and Russia hold 70% of the world s dwindling reserves of oil and gas. Coal is the most abundant and widely distributed fossil fuel. Global natural gas reserves are large and currently yield a reserve/production ratio of 50 to 60 years. Nuclear power s share of worldwide electricity supplies has been steady at 16-17% for many years, but reactor safety and waste disposal problems are still matters of concern. 

Contributions from renewable energy sources cannot keep pace, while the prospects for a significant contribution from nuclear energy in many countries remain clouded by social factors. So, for the time being, we will continue to be dependent upon fossil fuels. This includes coal, since there are probably insufficient exploitable reserves of oil and gas to keep pace for long with increasing demand. No effort should be spared therefore to curtail the environmental pollution which accompanies the use of fossil fuels. 

Fig. 1. The combined world fossil fuel use curve shows the sum of the historical worldwide production of oil, gas and coal up to 1990 (Barabba, 1989 Taylor, 1989 Kilgore, 1993 West, 1993). The combined world fossil fuel production is projected into the future base on proved reserves of oil and gas, and an estimate of known recoverable coal. The units are in quads (10 BTU).

The continental shelf off the north-west coast of Australia holds rich reserves of oil and gas, with hydrocarbon exploration and production activities in the area stretching back over deeades. On 21 August 2009, those in charge of drilling the Montara Hi oil and gas well in this area lost control of the well, resulting in uncontrolled flow of hydrocarbons to the environment. This type of event is known in the oil industry as a blowout. The incident has been the subject of a statutory inquiry (Borthwick 2010). 

PLA fibers are increasingly penetrating markets traditionally occupied by petroleum-based synthetics. The rationale for this trend is the increasing public concern over the depletion of natural resources and the accompanying atmospheric pollution. Various studies indicate that reserves of oil and gas will eventually be depleted, although the actual time scale is a topic of considerable debate. It is evident, however, that the use of aimuaUy renewable crops as a means of producing the materials we need to sustain our everyday lives will continue to accelerate. 

OPEC. Annual Statistical Bulletin http //www.opec.org/opec web/en/ (accessed July 23, 2010). Contains tables, charts, and graphs covering the world s reserves of oil and gas, crude oil and product output, exports, refining, tankers, and other data. OPEC publications can be downloaded free of charge from the OPEC Web site. Print copies are available for a subscription charge. 

The terms oil production and gas production refer to rates of extraction of liquid and gaseous hydrocarbon materials from natural underground deposits. Reserves and resources, on the other hand, refer to amounts of oil and gas that are present in the deposits, the difference between reserves and resources being whether or not the amounts can be economically recovered under current conditions. Supply refers to the amount of a product that becomes available for... 

We need to know about the quantity and quality of oil and gas reseiwes because the prosperity of the world is dependent upon petroleum-based fuels. The debate about forthcoming oil shortages—as soon as 2004 or perhaps later in the twenty-first century— hinges on our understanding of petroleum reserves and future resources. Global catastrophic changes are predicted by some if a shortage occurs early in the twenty-first century however, others are less concerned, because of new estimates of reseiwes and potential petroleum resources. 

A further factor to be considered is that of the national energy situation. Fortunately, in the short term there are available sufficient reserves of gas, oil and coal to meet the national need, so supplies should not be a problem. However, the prices of these fuels are subject to international as well as national policies. Currently, there is a relationship between heavy fuel oil and coal and between gas and gas oil (see Section 30.2). In the long term, as supplies of oil and gas are reduced it is likely that increases in the price of gas will outstrip those of oil. 

The various fields of chemistry play an important role in the discovery and exploitation of oil and gas reserves. Improved drilling and well completion fluids, cement slurries, hydraulic fracturing and acidizing fluids to improve well productivity, various chemical additives to be used in these fluids, and chemicals for enhanced oil recovery are essential to the improvement of production economics and to an increase in recoverable hydrocarbon reserves. Chemistry will become increasingly important in future hydrocarbon production with the decreased likelihood of major onshore discoveries, increased discovery and production costs associated with deep offshore wells and Arctic frontier provinces, and the decline in drilling since early 1982. 

US stock exchanges based on the probabilistic approach, requiring the report of only proved reserves they, nonetheless, also allow scope for some discretion. In conclusion, it can be said that, so far, there are no international requirements or standards in place regarding reserve classification and reporting, and the methodologies used for reserve estimates seem to vary according to their purpose as a result, reserve data are often referred to as political data . The consequences are inconsistency and controversy about the future supply of oil and gas. 

Because of substantial reserves of coal, situated in distant locations from consumers, the limited sources of oil and natural gas, expected growing price of oil and gas a considerable development and progress in the coal pipelining can be expected especially in the USA, in the former Soviet Union and also in other countries in a near future. One of prospective ways of energy transportation, i.e. gas, liquid and also solid fossil fuels transport, seems to be the transport of solidified oil in LNG and pipelining of coal in methanol. 

Biofuels are valuable sources of sustainable energy. Interest in them will rise tremendously in the coming years due to the perspective of a dramatic shortage of oil and gas reserves, simultaneously with an accelerated worldwide demand in fuels, namely in the large emergent economies. Biofuels have at least five merits. They ... 

Figure 5.8. Proven reserves of oil and natural gas liquids (unit Wy/m i.e., for each country, the average number of years for which an energy flow of 1 W per of land surface could be derived at 100% energy extraction efficiency). The resources are distributed over the country land areas, although many of the reserves and resources actually occur off-shore, cf. Fig. 5.9 (based upon data from World Energy Council, 1995 with area-based layout from Sorensen, 1999).

Production of oil and gas from the North Sea reserves has now peaked, and is expected to decline significantly in the future. The UK is therefore likely to rely more on imported natural gas. This may mean higher gas prices, in turn affecting the country s business-as-usual emissions, since more coal use and thus greater CO2 emission could be induced. 

Proven reserves of oil, natural gas, and coal tend to underscore that fossil fuels will remain an abundant inexpensive resource base for the foreseeable future. Proven oil reserves are expected to last at least 40 years, natural gas should last at least 70 years, and coal reserves are adequate for 200 years. By adding reserves that are likely to be found, the oil supply would then last between 50 and 100 years, natural gas 90 to 275 years, and coal at least 2,000 years. 

The exhaustibility of fossil sources at current consumption and production levels, the world s proven reserves of oil, natural gas and coal are expected to be depleted in 42, 64 and 155 years, respectively (lEA, 2006). Although these years left are moving targets, prices will rise substantially when oil fields become more depleted. 

Uranium deposits occur in many countries, but as shown in Table 12.4 the economically recoverable reserves, like oil and gas reserves, are primarily located outside of Europe. The OECD Nuclear Energy Agency and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA, 2008) expects that it will be possible to double the global uranium extraction at cost below US 80/ kgU to approximately 120,000 tU per year in 2016. At a constant rate of extraction these resources would allow for uranium extraction well into the 2040s. 

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