World energy reserves

Coal, tar, and heavy oil fuel reserves are widely distributed throughout the world. In the Western hemisphere, Canada has large tar sand, bitumen (very heavy cmde oil), and coal deposits. The United States has very large reserves of coal and shale. Coal comprises ca 85% of the U.S. recoverable fossil energy reserves (6). Venezuela has an enormous bitumen deposit and Brazil has significant oil shale (qv) reserves. Coal is also found in Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, and Pern. Worldwide, the total resource base of these reserves is immense and may constitute >90% of the hydrocarbon resources in place (see... 

The World Energy Council issues Conference reports on reserves, resources md production at six-year intervals. More limited reports ate issued at two-year intervals. The next report is expected in the fall of 1997. 

Comprehensive reviews of energy sources are pubflshed by the World Energy Conference, formerly the World Power Conference at six-year intervals (83). The 1986 survey includes reserves and also gives total resources. In 1986 the total proven reserves of recoverable soHd fuels were given as 6 X 10 metric tons. One metric ton is defined as 29.2 x 10 MJ (27.7 x 10 Btu) to provide for the variation of calorific value in different coals. The total estimated additional reserves recoverable and total estimated additional amount in place are 2.2 x 10 and 7.7 x 10 metric tons, respectively. These figures are about double the 1913 estimates, primarily because significantly increased reserves have been indicated for Russia. 

The demand for energy is continually increasing and the highest energy consumption in the world occurs in the United States. In 1989 consumption totaled 8.6 x 10 MJ (81.3 x 10 Btu) or 11.7 metric tons of coal-equivalent per capita (85). World recoverable reserves were about 120 times the annual coal production in 1988 and about 10 times that for the additional reserves beheved to be in place (1). Estimated coal consumption reduces the known recoverable reserves at about 1%/yr. Whereas the use of bituminous coal is expected to continue to increase in terms of tonnage, the percentage of coal used in the United States has stabilized as shown in Table 11. 

The simple fact is that the world s reserves of fossil fuels will eventually run out, depending on the rate of use, and therefore, if the consumption of these forms of energy are reduced, the existing reserves will last longer. Research and experimentation could lead to those reserves currently available but uneconomic to recover and use being rendered economic, thus extending further the number of years before these non-renewable sources of energy do eventually run out. 

The amount of worldwide energy reserves and life is variable according to the source of information used, but the position is of the order shown in Table 30.1. Thus at some time in the not too distant future (less than 100 years) oil, gas and uranium will no longer be available. Every effort is required to reduce the world s... 

Coal is the most abundant fossil fuel in the U.S. and many other countries. In the U.S. coal makes up about 95% of all fossil energy reserves. These reserves could last several hundred years at the current level of coal consumption. Major developing countries such as China and India, which are now using more and more of the world s oil, also have large coal reserves. 

Pig. I. Wortd recoverable coal reserves (millions of short ions). (World Energy Council)... 

Figure 1 Gas reserves and R/P ratios as of end 2001 (log scale). Data source BP Statistical Review of World Energy (except R/P for Iraq, which is an estimate).

British Petroleum Statistical Review of World Energy, Natural Gas Reserves, p. 20, 2001... 

How much of this mineral-rich black dirt is there In Canada alone, where most of the tar sands projects are located, there may be as much as 1 trillion barrels of oil equivalent. (The U.S. Department of Energy estimated in 2005 that recoverable Canadian tar sands reserves amount to 174.5 billion barrels, which would rank in the same league as world-leading reserves in Saudi Arabia and Russia.)... 

Natural gas, in recent years, has become an international commodity fuel. Current world reserves of natural gas are estimated at about 5000 tcf, the equivalent of about 40 percent of world petroleum energy reserves. About 35 percent of these reserves are in remote regions of the Former Soviet Union (FSU) and about 40 percent are located in the Persian Gulf countries of the Middle East. 

Already, the gaseous fuels account for approximately 40 percent of world petroleum energy production and nearly one-half of world petroleum energy reserves. Moreover, the growth of world natural gas consumption is already increasing rapidly. 

Statistical information on reserves, production, consumption and prices of oil, coal and natural gas The BP Statistical Review of World Energy, BP p.l.c., London, published annually also at www.bp.comjstatisticalreview... 

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).

Figure 5.9. Off-shore fraction of the reserves given in Fig. 5.8 (based upon data from World Energy Council, 1995 with area-based layout from Sorensen, 1999).

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