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The easy oil is gone so where do we look now?

Wednesday, February 25th 2015 - 16:41 UTC
Full article 5 comments

In 2008, Canadian economist Jeff Rubin stunned the oil market with a bold prediction: With the world economy growing at 5% a year, oil demand would grow with it, outpacing supply, thus lifting the oil price from $147 to over $200 a barrel. Read full article

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  • Pete Bog

    Nobheads-you make it out of crops that can be perpetually grown and turn grass into gas-start getting farms to produce energy.

    Feb 26th, 2015 - 01:30 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • MagnusMaster

    @1 Problem is biofuels aren´t feasable yet.

    Feb 26th, 2015 - 04:30 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Rufus

    @2 Magnus, the problem isn't so much that biofuels aren't feasible (although your average automotive diesel will run on vegetable oils with minor if any modification), it's that we as a species are just too short sighted to be pouring as much as possible into renewables and not-running-out-in-the-short-term-ables to have the technology to completely replace fossil fuels by the time we need to.

    Feb 27th, 2015 - 10:02 am - Link - Report abuse 0
  • yankeeboy

    These screamers have been saying we'll run out of “cheap” oil for 100+ years.
    It will not happen in any of our lifetimes.
    There's plenty of oil around if we need it.

    Feb 27th, 2015 - 12:27 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Pete Bog

    @2 Magnus master “@1 Problem is biofuels aren´t feasable yet.”

    You are sadly right but because of :

    @3 Rufus@2 ”Magnus, the problem isn't so much that biofuels aren't feasible (although your average automotive diesel will run on vegetable oils with minor if any modification), it's that we as a species are just too short sighted to be pouring as much as possible into renewables and not-running-out-in-the-short-term-ables to have the technology to completely replace fossil fuels by the time we need to.”

    The biggest problem is that to have farms all over the UK to produce huge volumes of gas, is that there are no pipe networks that could link them up and to provide them might cause too much upheaval.

    And there is a limit to how much electricity (if that is produced by burning the plentiful amounts of biogas that could be generated from the grass on just one farm), can be passed back through the grid, an issue that needs to be resolved by the power companies as they could source more energy from within the UK.

    I predict (but not with absolute confidence) than within 25 years I will be heating my house either with gas produced from grass, or a heat exchanger running through a heap of cut grass, depending on the cost of a good sized methane digester. Pity I will be unlikely to be sending excess gas anywhere, or great amounts of excess electricity.

    None of this from fossil fuels, or hamstrung by buying from overseas.

    Mar 03rd, 2015 - 12:02 pm - Link - Report abuse 0

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