I read something interesting the other day.
Quote:
It takes varying amounts of oil to extract oil, too. The $100 is not pure profit for the oil company. Much of the cost of extraction goes to pay for oil to run the machinery and oil tankers. I have seen estimates of the overhead ranging from 10% to 20%, depending on where the oil is extracted and how far it is shipped. If overhead reaches 50% to 60% I doubt oil will be a practical source of energy. People sometimes say there are huge amounts of "recoverable oil" left in the ground, but sooner or later the energy cost of recovering it will exceed the energy you get from it. Robert Park (of all people) found an apt quote describing this:
"Franco Battaglia at the University of Rome put it this way: 'You can buy an apple for one euro. If you really want an apple, you might pay five euros. You could even pay a thousand euros, but you would never pay two apples.'"
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There may be a lot of oil in shale and tar sands... but if it takes more energy to get the oil, refine it, transport it, and pump it, then we will be in trouble (unless that is why the oil companies are developing renewable power).