This may include adverts from us and 3 rd parties based on our understanding. The scientists warned that in just 13 years, global oil production could collapse, with oil and gas industries set to spiral over the next three decades. The three French government scientists, Louis Delannoy, Pierre-Yves Longaretti and Emmanuel Prados of the National Institute for Research in Digital Science and Technology INRIA published their stark warning in Elsevier s Applied Energy journal. They argue this is not because the earth is running out of oil and gas, but because oil and gas industries are using more energy in the process of extracting oil and gas.
They fear this could cause future global energy shortages and price spikes. Their warning refers to a concept called Energy Return On Investment EROI EROI measures how much energy you use in the process of extracting energy fossil fuels that is used for a resource or technology. They found that 15.5 percent more than a tenth of the energy produced from oil globally is already needed to keep on producing additional oil. And the scientists say that EROI is getting worse. They said that since the extraction of oil that is difficult to get to has slowed down, more energy is being expended to get oil that is easy to get to.
The techniques used to release that oil, like fracking, are known for releasing large quantities of greenhouse gases. This increases the rate of global warming and sets governments back on their climate targets. The scientists predict that by 2024, the amount of energy we use for global oil production will soar to 25 percent of energy production. This means that a quarter of the energy produced from oil just to keep producing that oil. And by 2050, half of the energy extracted from new reserves will need to be put back into global extraction if more oil is to be produced. The French scientists referred to this problem as energy cannibalism The problem here is that the more energy we need to extract energy itself, the less energy will be available for other areas of the economy and society.