The impression is left that new finds are being made through the glories of advancing technologies. This is rarely the case. This subterfuge may not matter much when new fields are being discovered. But now that virtually the whole world is mapped for oil, it obscures the awful truth that there is no more new oil. To date, the world has extracted about 820 billion barrels of oil.
Known reserves are about the same.
That is time enough to change horses, except for the small matter of production trends and prices. These are the only countries that can vary their output according to market conditions. And when their market share is high, they can trigger a price crisis. It happened in 1973 when the big five's share hit 38 per cent. After that, it fell to 18 per cent.