53.3 Years of Oil Left? Frack No!

When BP announced that there was an estimated “53.3-years of oil left”; blogs, news reports, and more were setting us into a panic when it was first announced and horrendous “clickbait” was created for Facebook.

The Greens were yelling the end was near and started to set trucks on fire. Ok, not really, but you know they wanted to. However, it really doesn’t mean we’ll be out of oil in that short amount of time. Let’s take a look at what it really means and what’s the real news of this announcement.

First, the estimate is actually a bit of good news. The estimate of 1.69-trillion barrels of oil is a 1.1-percent improvement over 2013. BP also announced that the US has 44.2-billion barrels of crude oil in reserve and that was also a 26-percent increase over last year’s estimates.

So, no, we don’t have 53.3-years of oil left and it’s increasing thanks to new technology in oil drilling and fracking.

Fracking is industry known as hydraulic fracturing and literally fractures rock using a pressurized liquid. While the pressure is artificial, the fracturing occurs on natural areas like certain oil-veins or dikes.

The pressurized liquid is usually water mixed with sand and other chemicals. It does have major environmental setbacks like seismic activity, reduction of fresh ground water, and containment can be an issue. There is a new technology on the horizon and was part of why we’re seeing an increase; horizontal drilling.

Better known as Directional Drilling, horizontal drilling is being utilized in the Rockies, where EOG Resources has four rigs set up and ready to start drilling soon. They estimate there is more oil there in the form of shale oil. Companies are also continuing to look to the Gulf Coast for oil.

You can also thank fuel efficiency innovations to increasing our oil supplies and reserves. With innovations in turbocharger technology in small engines, better and direct fuel control, and hybrid-tech, we’re using less and less gas and those help with the overall picture of crude oil reserves.

So, short answer is no, we don’t have less than 54-years of oil left and it continues to increase each year. To quote the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, “Don’t Panic.”

What do you think about fracking? Should we frack or go frack ourselves? Discuss it the forum >>