Although crude oil & lease condensate (C&C) production is forecast to continue declining, the total liquids supply remains on a plateau until 2009 (Fig 1), due to offsetting production increases from natural gas plant liquids (NGPLs), ethanol and XTL (BTL - biomass to liquids, CTL - coal to liquids and GTL - gas to liquids). The main causes for the end of the total liquids plateau in 2009 (Fig 1) are that the C&C production decline rate accelerates to 3%/yr in 2009 (Fig 3) and the production growth from natural gas plant liquids stalls (Fig 15). http://www.theoildrum.com/node/3623#more
The problem with that chart is the demand side, the price will rise enough to kill off the portion of demand required to stay at par as you cannot have more demand than supply as the chart illustrates. So eventually the S&D will need to converge and the price run will be what causes that to happen.
peak oil SS/medicare obligations weak dollar hillary/obama care subprime mess global warming Iran nukes suitcase nukes Democrats Republicans I think I'm getting an ulcer
A quick look at methane hydrates in the oceans reveals reserves of 140 trillion barrels of oil equivalent, about 70 times oil reserves. 80,000 times more methane hydrate than natural gas. A 5% production of methane reserves would last a few lifetimes. A lot of companies and countries are researching extraction methods, but why bother when oil is so cheap and plentiful.