Estimates of how much crude oil we have extracted from the
planet vary wildly. Now, UK researchers have published a new
estimate in the International Journal of Oil, Gas and Coal
Technology that suggests we may have used more than we think.
The idea that we are running out of oil is not a new one, but do
we even know how much oil we have extracted from since the first
commercial oil wells were sunk in the middle of the nineteenth
century? In 2008, chemists Istvan Lakatos and Julianna Lakatos-
Szabo of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences theorised that less
than 100 billion tonne of crude oil has been produced since 1850
and that the average annual production rate is less than 700
million barrels per year. They compared proven reserves and
estimates of yet-to-find (YTF) resources and echoed the
sentiment that we will soon face oil shortages even though a
substantial part of those reserves remain in the ground
untapped. Now, John Jones in the School of Engineering, at the
University of Aberdeen, UK, suggests that