Estimating Oil Reserves: History and Methods

Abstract

When human societies became aware that an increasing proportion of their power, heat and light were produced from fossil fuels and that fossil fuels were an exhaustible resource, there was no way back to the pre-industrial world. Drawing on the history and methodologies of estimating petroleum reserves this chapter explains how geologists, politicians, engineers, managers and the public at large have come to perceive the finite nature of energy sources.