When will the oil supply in the middle east run out?

I'm wondering, does anyone have a good idea or only speculation?When will the oil supply in the middle east run out?
There can only be speculation because there can only be speculation on how much oil the world will demand in the future. The farther into the future, the more speculative that it becomes.





Just for consideration: in the 70s during the ';energy crisis';, we were told by authoritative experts that the world's oil supplies would be exhausted by now. In fact, I believe that the estimates of available oil are *greater* now than they were then, 30 years ago. We have literally mountains of oil in the west (oil shale). It has only recently become profitable to extract this oil (Canada's shale oil business is booming). Pumping oil is much cheaper, however. Here in the U.S., oil companies find it much more profitable to restrict the supply.





The problem is that, currently, there is no economically-competitive alternative. I wish the U.S. would subsidize only corn production and remove subsidies for all other farming. Corn could be turned into ethanol and we could be independent of foreign oil in less than two years time.





Jim, http://www.life-after-harry-potter.comWhen will the oil supply in the middle east run out?
On 14 March 2105 according to the Bible.
It is not possible to know exactly how much oil there is or 'proven reserves'. However it does not matter since at some point production will decrease driving the price up and people will switch to an alternative energy source(or none at all). When this happens oil will proverbially 'run out' when the cost of pulling it out of the earth exceeds the cost that people are willing to pay for it.