How long can oil, coal and natural gas last?

So far, mankind has exploited about 0.9 trillion barrels of oil. The remaining oil reserves on the earth are still inconclusive, but as a consumable energy source, it will be exhausted sooner or later. In 2004, Daniel F. Akerson Mobil Company estimated the world's total reserves to be 1.26 trillion barrels (1.71.70 billion tons), and BP Company estimated it to be 1 148 trillion barrels (1.566 billion tons).

How long can these oils be mined? Take Saudi Arabia as an example. At present,10.37 billion barrels are mined every day, so Saudi oil with the largest reserves can be mined for about 70 years. More estimates show that the reserves in the world today are only enough for 50 years. However, some people think that with the discovery of new oil fields, the future of oil is not so pessimistic. However, with the rapid increase of oil consumption in China and other countries, the service life of oil is variable.

Although there are renewable energy sources as a choice at present, there is still great controversy about how much oil can be replaced by renewable energy sources and the environmental damage that renewable energy itself may cause.

Renewable energy sources such as sunlight, wind power and geothermal energy can't replace oil as transportation energy with high energy density. In order to replace oil, these renewable energy sources must be converted into electricity (in the form of storage batteries) or hydrogen (through fuel cells or internal combustion engines) to drive vehicles. However, these technologies are not mature enough for large-scale application. Taking hydrogen fuel as an example, transportation and storage are difficult problems to solve. Moreover, the production of hydrogen is mainly from natural gas at present, which means that the brand of hydrogen as a renewable energy is greatly discounted. Even if water is electrolyzed to produce hydrogen, it needs electricity, so where does this electricity come from?

natural gas

As for natural gas, by the end of 2002, it is estimated that the world's natural gas reserves will be 65.438+0.55 trillion cubic meters, and the world's natural gas output in 2002 will be 2.527 billion cubic meters per day. It is estimated that the ratio of global natural gas reserves to annual output (R/P) is 60.7 years.

coal

With regard to coal, by the end of 2002, it was estimated that the world coal reserves were 984.453 billion tons, and the world coal output in 2002 was 2,379.4 million tons of oil equivalent/day. It is estimated that the ratio of global coal reserves to annual output (R/P) is 2004.