Peak Oil: Today’s Scary Reality

          Peak Oil is a term meaning “the peak in global oil production.” Since oil is non-renewable, there is a point during its usage at which its production starts to decline. This occurs when about half of an oil reserve is used. Peak Oil is a very real occurrence; most oil reserves have already peaked and are currently in a decline. In fact, the only major oil reserves that have not yet peaked are the ones located in the Middle East. Oil peaks instead of suddenly running out because oil companies are able to reach cheap, accessible oil first. This oil is close to the surface, under pressure, and called “sweet” because of its low sulfur content. After this cheap oil is extracted and refined, oil companies have to find oil off-shore, in smaller fields. The oil in these smaller fields is of much lower quality than the cheap oil. It is also more expensive to extract, transport, and refine. Once companies start to harvest the more expensive, off-shore oil, production starts to decline, and the peak has already occurred. Eventually, it becomes economically impractical to keep extracting oil from a virtually dried-out oil field. Peak Oil has many implications to our society; oil has so many uses and is arguably our planet’s most important resource. Oil’s uses include fuel, transportation, and plastics. The impact of oil on our society is so great that without it, the world would be very different.

          The largest implication of Peak Oil to our society is its effect on transportation. Currently, oil is responsible for 43% of the world’s total consumption of fuel, meaning that 43% of the fuel that we use every day is oil. Peak Oil implies that, one day, we will not have that fuel. One day, the world’s fuel consumption will depend solely on the other 57% (the portion not represented by oil). For transportation, 95% of the global energy used is oil. This statistic is much larger than the previous one; during oil’s decline, the price will increase, making transportation so expensive that it is questionable that humans will even have the chance to fly an airplane a century from now. While this thought is scary and seemingly distant, Peak Oil is very real, and it is something for which the world needs to prepare.