Summary

Chapter 7, “The End of Oil,” discusses the potential for the world to run out of petroleum. Muller says that while it is nearly impossible to drain every last drop of petroleum from the Earth, oil will start become rarer, more difficult and more expensive to extract. The availability of oil from a variety of sources can be charted along the Hubbert curve, and once production reaches what is known as the Hubbert peak, it can only decrease from there. As demand for oil becomes greater than supply, prices go up. Chapter 7 is divided into two subsections, one looking at ways of obtaining oil, and one looking at the sale of oil.

“Oil from Coal: Fischer-Tropsch,” explains how oil that is used to make gasoline can be extracted from coal – its greatest competitor, both in terms of science and in terms...