Quote2050? 2100? Never? That's understandable given the IPCC models access to oil until 2100; politicians like Rishi are betting big on North Sea deposits. Petroleum is the life blood of our global economy, and it's difficult to imagine it drying up. More often, when we talk about transitioning away from fossil fuels, it's because of the necessity to limit global warming—not because we run out.

But a team in Scotland are warning exactly that—we're running out. Fast. Alister Hamilton is a researcher at the University of Edinburgh and the founder of Zero Emissions Scotland. He and his colleagues self-funded research into oil depletion around the world and the results are shocking: We will lose access to oil around the world in the 2030s.

They calculated this by establishing the Energy Return On Investment (EROI) and found that whilst there will still be oil deposits around the world, we would use more energy accessing the oil supply than we would ever get from burning it. This is because we're having to mine further into the earth's crust to access lower-grade oil. According to their calculations, the oil in the North Sea will be inaccessible—in a dead state—by 2031, and the oil in Norway by 2032. Around the world, oil reserves see the same trend through the 2030s.

Petroleum is the life blood, and we haven't yet built out a different circulatory system to support renewable energy—in less than a decade, the world as know it could crash.

I fixed it.  Will Crash

Rachel Donald did good on this one!

Critics of peak oil conveniently forget about EROEI.  Oil will be left, shale rock will hold oil.  But fracked oil will become unobtainable long before it is gone.  EROEI screws the pooch.

46 minutes in Alister Hamilton mentions Sterling Engines.  I am going to build one.  I have been looking at them recently.  That part of the discussion is off point.  But interesting to me.  I want something that will use the earth as a heat ballast and take the air temperature difference to operate from.  On a hot day perhaps the cool reservoir could be cooled with evaporation.  All I am after is a few watts which I think I can do.