EROI

“Oil is the currency of our civilization. It is the number one source and lower cost, scalable carrier of energy providing 33% of worlds’ energy needs. It is a life blood of modern human mobility. Ensuring abundant, sustained, and affordable supply of Oil is at the top of global energy security agenda. However, it seems that days of cheap and abundant oil are numbered. Global supplies of this cheap and abundant resource are increasingly being strained due to ever rising demand and maturation of existing mega oil fields. Global energy return on energy investment “EROI” on oil has gradually dropped from 100-to-15 in last 50 years. EROI is directly influenced by effort. This at the societal level, means that an increasing proportion of energy output and economic activity must be diverted to attaining the energy needed to run an economy, leaving less discretionary funds available for “non-essential” scenarios which often act as catalyst for growth. This declining EROI of traditional fossil fuel energy sources and their effects on the world economy are likely to result in a myriad of consequences, most of, which may not be good. In general, EROI for discovery is declining or flat but EROI for production is clearly declining. If this is true than discovery becomes less important. We at IOGS believe that technological innovations could compensate for depletion. We are developing technologies which could enhance the EROI. Thus, technological interventions might reduce the falling rate of EROI and may buy some time for civilization to bring a mix of competing energy technologies to the market”.