Fossil fuels such as oil come from, well, fossils—organisms that died long ago. This means there is a limited supply, and at some point we'll be tapped out. Scientific American editor David Biello explains when the well may run dry.

• Related Articles

• Net Loss: How We Continually Forget What the Oceans Really Used to Be Like [Excerpt]
• Is Global Warming Cooler than Expected?
• Will Great Wines Prove a Moveable Feast under Global Warming?

6 Comments

1. 1. DInkSinger 11:49 PM 7/20/12

   The reason oil well gushers (blowouts) do not occur very often anymore is not because oil under pressure is no longer being tapped. It is because well drilling techniques were revolutionized by the invention of the two-cone rotary drill bit patented by Howard Hughes, Sr. in 1908. Since then wells have been generally drilled under sufficient pressure to contain the oil. The subsequent development of better well management procedures and blowout preventers further reduced blowouts. In fact, they were good enough by the mid-1920s that gushers were mostly only found in movies thereafter. When well control procedures and blowout preventers fail, as they did at the Macondo Prospect well (aka "Deepwater Horizon" - the name of the drilling vessel), uncontrolled flow still occurs. Oil flowed at about 2,000 gallons a minute in the early days following the Macondo Prospect blowout. By comparison, the 1901 Lucus Gusher at Spindletop, shown in the video, initial flowed at about 2,900 gallons a minute.

   Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this

2. 2. tucanofulano 03:45 PM 7/23/12

   Will the planet run out of oil? The answer is NO. The theory oil came from decayed dinos is flawed, and the notion of "Peak" oil begs the question.

   Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this

3. 3. jerryd 06:22 PM 7/23/12

   We hit peak oil already as that refers to regular crude which has peaked. It's unconventional oil that has increased.
   
   Oil causes recessions and just not worth it's cost as other energy sources are cheaper in some many ways.
   
   For instance why do we protect international oil companies and dictators for free? Shouldn't that cost be in oil? It's jusat pure corporate welfare. If it was that alone would cut the deficit by 50% but repubs won't even listen to the thought.
   
   I don't care that much as I drive my EV's for 25% of a similar ICE costs. And I don't pay for both sides of the oil wars, dictators and terrorists.

   Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this

4. 4. DaniEder 11:30 PM 7/26/12

   No, because if oil from the ground becomes scarce and expensive, we will switch to other energy sources, including engineered cyanobacteria which can emit hydrocarbons by design, using sunlight + CO2 as a source.
   
   Even if batteries never improve, we could make "electric roads" the way that electrified trains operate. That would extend the range of electric vehicles sufficiently to make them common, since their internal batteries would only have to cover local roads that are not electrified.
   
   Thus once oil becomes more expensive than the alternatives, we would switch to something else, and the remainder would stay in the ground.

   Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this

5. 5. CRS, DrPH 04:44 PM 7/28/12

   "Fossil fuels such as oil come from, well, fossils—organisms that died long ago." OK, so how does this explain the presence of oil & natural gas MILES below the surface? I'm working with crews on the Pinedale Anticline in Pinedale, WY and challenge that this source of petroleum came from "dead organisms."
   
   We won't run out of oil since the vast majority is created abiogenically...we are only limited by the ability to drill ever deeper. New hydrocarbons are constantly being produced by heat & pressure acting on carbonate materials deep below the surface.
   
   And, this doesn't even begin to touch the vast stores of oil held in shale and tar sand formations!

   Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this

6. 6. jerryd 06:12 PM 7/28/12

   CRS, you really don't understand why oil, gas is down there? Didn't you go to school?
   
   Several ways, subduction between the earth's plates where the over one drives the other down hundreds of miles. This puts plenty of biomass way down.
   
   Most oil, NG, etc is made by layers of layers of sand, silt, mosly plants getting buried either in low lying areas or at river outlets, etc. Then the land sinks, volcano's, etc stuff happens and it ends up miles down. The deepest becomes NG and the less deep the bigger HC chain like oil, hard coal, soft coal, peat.
   
   Oil shale is a young oil field and tarsands are oil fields that have risen and all the good/light stuff evaporated away.
   
   While some HC is likely made by H/C/metals deep in the earth, mostly it's surface H2-C2 from biomass and water buried that makes by far the most of it. Plus it's only likely to make NG/Methane, not oil and it's longer chains.

   Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this