When Will We Run Out of Oil?

Will the world's supply of oil go up in flames?

There has been much crystal gazing when it comes to the question, "When will we run out of oil?"

That's because of our rabid dependence on the black liquid…

According to the 2015 edition of the BP Plc. (NYSE ADR: BP) Energy Outlook, energy demand will increase by close to 40% over the next 20 years. And in the United States, oil accounts for 40% of total energy consumption (coal provides 23% and natural gas provides 22% of our energy), according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).

In its report, BP estimates the world has 53.3 years of oil left at current production rates.

That's the latest projection, but such forecasts have long been tried.

In 1914, the Bureau of Mines said U.S. oil reserves would be exhausted by 1924. It was wrong. So also was the Interior Department in 1939 – it said global reserves would last only 13 years longer.

"The truth is every expert who's predicted 'the end of oil' has been wrong in the past," Money Morning Global Energy Strategist Dr. Kent Moors said on July 10, 2014. "But with global energy consumption at an all-time high, and much of the world's economy dependent on oil, the question needs to be asked: When will we run out of oil?"

Let's take a look…

When Will We Run Out of Oil?

We know with certainty oil is a diminishing commodity. It has taken millions of years to provide what we are taking out of the ground.

But a "disappearance" in oil isn't going to take place anytime even remotely soon.

"Granted, 10 years ago I might have been more sympathetic to the Chicken Little ('the sky is falling') approach when it came to the amount of crude oil remaining," Moors said. "In those days, I did say (and wrote) that we had about enough oil to possibly last one more generation."

Moors explained that what he saw as the real issue back then was not the amount of oil remaining, but the reliability of the supply.

"I foresaw unpredictable disruptions, spot shortages, and a lot of uncertainty in the market."

One factor changed all of that…