Fossil Fuels: Examination and Prediction of Future Tends

The accumulation of fossil fuels is a process that took hundreds of millions of years, yet in just the last few hundred years we have depleted a large percentage of the total amount formed. The future trends of fossil fuels are difficult to predict because of the many different factors that affect the production and consumption of each fossil fuel. To present accurate predictions about coal, oil, natural gas, and other energy sources like uranium, factors such as human population growth, the energy requirements in developing countries vs. developed countries, use of comparable fossil and renewable fuels, and environmental concerns and responses must be considered. By using conversion factors, the numerical energy values for each resource are equalized based on the thermal energy of oil. By this conversion the total amount of energy producible from the total reserves of each resource can be compared against one another. Taking into account these many variables, predictions results may accurately reflect the trends these fossil fuels will take in the future.Funding from Shell Exploration and Production Company supported much of the work.No embarg