Countdown to the end of oil reliance

Mention "renewables", and the response of many is that the future decline in fossil fuel resources will eventually drag the world into a more sustainable energy market structure, with some glitches on the way.

However, the reality is likely to be very different.

Globally, international oil companies and their equivalents in the state sector have access to enough oil and gas to keep production at close to current rates up to 2050, probably peaking around 2030, with currently uneconomic and other undiscovered resources still providing significant amount of fuel throughput into the next century. The world, including China, also has vast quantities of coal that remain untapped.