Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Table 1.5
Fossil Fuel Reserves
Crude oil
Natural gas
Coal
Proven reserves
a
155.8 billion m
3
142.7 billion t
984 billion t
5975 EJ
4944 EJ
28,852 EJ
2.53 billion m
3
Production in 2002
3.56 billion t
4.82 billion t
149 EJ
80 EJ
141 EJ
Reserves/production
ratio
a
41 years
61 years
204 years
Unproven additional
reserves
b
217 billion m
3
6668 billion t
c
84 billion t
Accumulated
production
b
128.2 billion t
69.6 billion m
3
-
Note:
a At the end of 2002; b at the end of 2001; c total reserves;
1 t = 1 metric tonne = 2204.62 lb = 1.1023 short tonnes
Source:
BP, 2003; BGR, 2002
and less-developed continents, South America and Africa, have a very small
portion of the world primary energy demand. The section headed 'Greenhouse
Effect' (see p10), will illustrate this uneven distribution of the energy demand
by looking at the per capita carbon dioxide emissions, which correlate strongly
with the energy demand.
R
ESERVES OF
F
OSSIL
E
NERGY
S
OURCES
The current energy supply depends mainly on fossil energy carriers as described
in the previous section. Fossil fuels such as natural gas, petroleum, hard and
brown coal needed many thousands of years to form. Organic substances (i.e.
animal or vegetable residues) were the base materials. Hence, fossil fuels are
stored biomass of the ancient past. A huge amount of these fossil fuels has
already been consumed in the 20th century. However, due to the increasing
exploitation of the fossil reservoirs, future extraction will be more and more
difficult, technically challenging and risky and therefore much more expensive
than today. Deep-sea oil rigs are one step in this development. If fossil fuel use
continues unchecked, all available reserves of petroleum and natural gas will
be exploited within the 21st century (BP, 2003). Only coal reserves will be
available for a longer period of time (see Table 1.5). Thus, some decades from
now, a few generations of humanity will have exploited the whole fossil energy
reserves that required millions of years to form. Future generations will no
longer have the opportunity to use fossil fuels as their energy supply.
An exact estimation of the existing reserves of fossil energy resources is
very difficult, because only the size of deposits already explored is known.
Additional reserves to be discovered in future can only be estimated. However,
even if major fossil fuel reserves should be discovered, this would not change
the fact that fossil fuel reserves are limited. The time span of their availability
can be extended only by some years or decades at best.
