Actually, oil won't run out. It's made by the anaerobic decay of marine organisms. Everything (well almost everything) that lives in the oceans eventually sinks to the bottom and joins the detrital ooze. This process is going on right now - making oil. 
The snag is that we are taking it out a lot faster than it's being made. The truth is that EASILY ACCESSIBLE oil will run out.
This won't happen overnight but it might go something like this:
1) The demand for oil will exceed the easily accessible supply.
2) The price will go up. (The price IS going up!)
3) We will complain a lot but pay up anyway.
4) The price will go up even more.
5) We will do our dingers about the price of petrol and seriously consider driving our cars less. We will learn how to walk a mile and bike four - or more.
6) The higher price will get people thinking about going after less accessible oil - or making it from coal, which will only delay the inevitable because easily accessible coal will also run out!
7) The higher price will prompt lots of people to try lots of ways of making viable fuel from plants, be they botanical, geothermal or nuclear! The price will, unfortunately, remain high.
8} The accountants who tried to pull the plug on our experimental fusion ring will get the sack. OK, that's too much to hope for but the physicists and engineers who carried on designing it in the pub will have a jolly good laugh.
9) We will get used to the idea that transport is no longer cheap. We will take this into account when we build our houses, shops and factories. Caravan site shops in South West Scotland will get their eggs from local farms instead of having them "delivered fresh from Nottingham every day". (No, I'm not joking!)
10) At some unknown time in the future we will solve the problem. Just as coal made the industrial revolution possible and oil gave us cheap transport, so SOMETHING - don't ask me what - will become our new source of plentiful, cheap energy.
11) We will consume it like there is no tomorrow, wizzing round the solar system for summer holidays on Mars (or winter holidays on Venus ). The Starship Enterprise will set off to explore planets orbiting other stars.
12) Our new found energy source will begin to run out.
13) We will be right back where we started!
The snag is that we are taking it out a lot faster than it's being made. The truth is that EASILY ACCESSIBLE oil will run out. This won't happen overnight but it might go something like this:
1) The demand for oil will exceed the easily accessible supply.
2) The price will go up. (The price IS going up!)
3) We will complain a lot but pay up anyway.
4) The price will go up even more.
5) We will do our dingers about the price of petrol and seriously consider driving our cars less. We will learn how to walk a mile and bike four - or more.
6) The higher price will get people thinking about going after less accessible oil - or making it from coal, which will only delay the inevitable because easily accessible coal will also run out!
7) The higher price will prompt lots of people to try lots of ways of making viable fuel from plants, be they botanical, geothermal or nuclear! The price will, unfortunately, remain high.
8} The accountants who tried to pull the plug on our experimental fusion ring will get the sack.
OK, that's too much to hope for but the physicists and engineers who carried on designing it in the pub will have a jolly good laugh. 9) We will get used to the idea that transport is no longer cheap. We will take this into account when we build our houses, shops and factories. Caravan site shops in South West Scotland will get their eggs from local farms instead of having them "delivered fresh from Nottingham every day".
(No, I'm not joking!)10) At some unknown time in the future we will solve the problem. Just as coal made the industrial revolution possible and oil gave us cheap transport, so SOMETHING - don't ask me what - will become our new source of plentiful, cheap energy.
11) We will consume it like there is no tomorrow, wizzing round the solar system for summer holidays on Mars (or winter holidays on Venus
). The Starship Enterprise will set off to explore planets orbiting other stars. 12) Our new found energy source will begin to run out.
13) We will be right back where we started!
