Canada Has 8 Years of Natural Gas Left

Dave Hughes, who works for Natural Resoruces Canada, has been speaking out about the coming energy crisis. At a recent speach, hosted by The University of Calgary's Geology Department, Hughes described the "resource pyramid," with high quality resources at the top and more abundant but lesser quality resources at the bottom. The farther down the pyramid you go, the more energy it takes to extract the resources, until you reach a point where you are using more energy than you are getting back.

Hughes claimed that North America is on an "exporation treadmill" when it comes to natural gas. More and more gas wells need to be drilled each year just to keep production steady. The number of new wells drilled in Canada has increased steadily from 4,842 in 1997 to 15,126 in 2004. Production peaked at 17.4 Bcf/d in 2001 and 2002, then fell to 16.9 Bcf/d in 2003 and 17.0 Bcf/d in 2004.

Worldwide, energy production is being strained by the dramatic growth in demand from emerging economies. Since the 1960s, China's energy consumption has grown 600%, India's has grown 600%, and Indonesia's has grown 1,400%.

Awareness of our energy limitations is becoming mainstream. What is still lacking is a serious program to conserve our remaining energy resources and bring renewable sources online.