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Is oil a finite resource? Some say it isn’t.

I was taught from elementary school through college that oil is a finite resource. My elementary teachers engaged in scare tactics that the world’s oil supply would be exhausted in our lifetime. It was those same teachers that said we would die in the coming ice-age if the world’s population didn’t stop using oil. Those teachers said our pollution from the use of fossil fuels would obstruct the warming rays from the sun.

My father made me fill-up our Ford Falcon’s gas tank every time when he saw that I could do that task. In 1969 you had to squeeze the lever and the spring was so heavy to overcome for an eight-year-old boy. Moreover, there were no notched swing levers on the filler nozzles back then. Gasoline was about ¢.34 a gallon. It took about $5.00 to fill the car’s fuel tank. A barrel of oil fetched $3.32 and that price when corrected for inflation is $23.36. Today’s market price for a barrel of oil is at $13.39.  Gold’s price per ounce in 1969 was $41.00. Back then, our money was backed by gold. Today’s price for an ounce of gold is $1,725.70.

Something is not adding up. If the oil is a finite resource, then why are Russia and Saudi Arabia pumping at full capacity at this oil price when there isn’t the demand? Moreover, these two countries continue to pump the oil out of the ground, all the while, the nations of the world are in a panic to find places to store this excess unneeded oil. Something isn’t adding up. I have a theory as to why Russia and Saudi Arabia are pumping on no demand at this price. Bear with me a little longer, please.

All of my professional career life has been in the employ of various contractors. One contractor, I worked for, my work was in a classified setting for the Department of Defense. This was during the cold war with the Soviet Union. I read a paper from a Soviet scientist that suggested that oil is not a finite resource. The scientist said in his paper that oil is constantly being created from the heat of the radioactive decay of the earth’s core in combination with tectonic action on minerals. And the earth’s spinning force causes the oil to pool in various locations. I can’t say I believe it or not.

After the cold war ceased, I went back to colleges to study aviation maintenance. Until you have worked at an airport, it is hard to fathom how many gallons of Jet-A fuel is being consumed every day. Only 4 gallons of Jet-A is produced from a barrel of oil. A 747 can carry 63,032 gallons of Jet-A. To fill a 747, it takes 15,758 barrels of oil to produce that quantity of Jet-A. Of course, those barrels also produce gasoline, diesel, and other fuel products. Now envision all the planes in the world, all the trains in the world, all the cars in the world, all the trucks in the world, and all the ships in the world that are burning petroleum fuels every day for the last 80 years; then wonder why we haven’t run out of oil.

Click on the video symbol to see oil production.

Back to Russia and Saudi Arabia, if the Russian scientist was right, and that’s a big if I concede, then perhaps Russia and Saudi Arabia are over the most active pooling points that oil fills from the earth’s internal actions. And those two counties are afraid that someone will notice that their oil reserves are rising during this period of diminished demand. I am probably wrong, but this theory explains Russia’s and Saudi Arabia’s overproduction at these oil prices on a supposed finite resource.

Published by Chief Editor, Sammy Campbell. Written by Mark Pullen.