We will NEVER run out of oil!

"It's not a call to arms, or a doomsday prophecy. It's a simple truth: Someday the planet will run out of oil." -- Eric Sofge, MSN Autos in "A World Without Gas" retrieved from http://editorial.autos.msn.com/article.aspx?cp-documentid=748083&topart=luxury on February 17, 2009.

Actually, contrary to what Mr. Sofge argues, we will never run out of oil. We might run out of the cheap stuff, the light sweet crude that proliferates in the Middle East. However, there will be oil in the ground until the Earth ends. Now we will likely have gone on to other sources of energy by then but, in reality, it is a simple truth: The planet itself will never run out of oil.

How can this be? The reason is simple: as oil becomes harder to find and extract, the price will rise. The rising price will make it so that we will begin to economize and finally will develop alternatives until we leave oil to the dustbins of history. At that point, we will stop using oil but there will still be oil in the ground. It is just that it won't be economically feasible for us to extract it because something cheaper will have replaced it.