The numbers on offshore oil drilling
by Kevin Godby
When John McCain announced he wanted to lift the ban on offshore oil drilling, I started hearing all sorts of numbers being thrown around. I set out to find out just how much oil existed offshore and how long it would last.
According to McCain, there are “21 billion barrels of proven oil reserves” offshore.
The next question is: how long will 21 billion barrels last? According to the Energy Information Administration, the United States consumes over 20 million barrels per day.
| 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20.90 | 20.71 | 20.99 | 21.20 |
Okay, now that we’ve collected the numbers, let’s do a little math.
| Year | Math! | Oil consumed | Remaining |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 20.90M barrels/day × 187 days* | 3.91B barrels | 17.09B barrels |
| 2009 | 20.71M barrels/day × 365 days | 7.55B barrels | 9.54B barrels |
| 2010 | 20.99M barrels/day × 365 days | 7.66B barrels | 1.88B barrels |
| 2011 | 21.20M barrels/day × 365 days | 7.74B barrels | −5.86B barrels |
If we were to use only the oil from the offshore oil reserves, then that oil would be entirely used up in less than three years. (We run out of offshore oil 30 March 2011, according to these figures.)