oil is the lifeblood of the World's economy. It was a critical element in two World Wars and in the Cold War, and, as recent events in the Middle East confirm, people are willing to fight for it. The cheap energy it provides, especially for transport and agriculture, was one of the main factors that made possible the economic prosperity and growth that the World has enjoyed for the past fifty years and more. People rely on it everywhere, and in many forms, and they have become so accustomed to its ready availability that they take it for granted. To conceive of a world without traffic jams and airliners is unthinkable, and while not so obvious, oil lies behind every supermarket shelf, fuelling the tractor that ploughs the field and the delivery van that brings the consumer his food. Yet everyone knows that it is a finite and irreplaceable commodity, formed long ago in the geological past. What no one knows is just how finite it is. This book is an effort to try to answer that question : not in detail, but at least in orders of magnitude. More useful than the figures themselves is the discussion of the elements involved in addressing the subject. While it is impossible to predict the precise pattern of future production, which will be affected by many unforeseeable factors, one can at least begin to think in terms of resource constraint instead of an ever expanding supply of oil.

Inhalt

1 - World Assessment.- The Occurrence of Petroleum.- Source-Rocks.- Oil in the Reservoir.- Seal.- Critical Timing.- Means of Analysis.- Unreliable Data Base.- The Elements of Study.- Rounding.- Cumulative Production.- Reserves.- NGL and Condensate.- Total Discovered.- The Importance of Giant Fields.- Undiscovered.- Remaining Oil.- Ultimate.- Production.- Post Mid-Point Countries.- Pre Mid-Point Countries.- The Special Case of the Middle East Six.- Scenario-1.- Scenario-2.- Scenario-3.- The Importance of the Middle East Six.- World Distribution.- Basic Elements.- Remaining Oil and Depletion Rate.- Maturity and Undiscovered Potential.- Years to the Depletion Mid-Point.- The Importance of Revision Analysis.- Conclusions.- References.- 2 - Regional Assessment.- Key to lay-out.- Middle East Six.- Sino-Soviet.- North America.- Latin America.- Africa.- The East.- Western Europe.- Middle East (Minor).- New Provinces.- The following material is provided for each of the above regions:.- Summary.- Sumary Data Sheet.- Production Profile 1930-2050.- Produced, Reserves, Undiscovered.- Maturity - Undiscovered as percentage of Ultimate.- Remaining Oil and Depletion Rates.- Years to or form Depletion Mid-Point.- Production Plot with Giant Fields.- 3 - Production by Country and Giant Oilfields.- Production Plots (except minor producers) (Listed alphabetically by country).- Production Profiles 1930-2050 (Listed alphabetically by country).- Giant Oilfields (Listed alphabetically by country).