How long will the oil industry last?

<p>I was wondering, right now jobs like petroleum engineer is in high demand, but how about in a couple years? By the time I get a job, it'll be around 2020. Will the oil production and exploration jobs still be so demanding and high paying? I dont want to get a degree that focuses on oil then have it run out it a few years xD I know no one can predict the future, but if anyone has an idea about please let me know! Thanks!</p>

<p>10 years I think we will still have an oil industry. 20 years and it will be on the heavy decline. I beleive that in 50 years the oil industry will be gone so sometime towards the end of our life times.</p>

<p>the world will be running on oil for a long time… I wouldn’t worry about it.</p>

<p>I strongly disagree it will be on the decline in 20 years.</p>

<p>bump!..</p>

<p>As we run out of the cheapest, largest and easiest-to-find oil fields, demand for petroleum engineers will only grow: as the largest fields get depleted, oil companies will need to drill many more smaller wells in ever more remote locations to replace them. Keeping up with demand will by necessity become even more labor-intensive.</p>

<p>You can never know these things. Our world is always on the brink of radical change, just as soon as someone develops the right idea at the right time at the right setting. The oil industry might last for a century or more, with developments in shale oil extraction and tar sands. Or, it might be displaced within two decades by a future source of energy, perhaps fast-breeder nuclear reactors or more efficient and cost-effective solar panels.</p>

<p>Even if the world switches away from oil as the main transportation energy source, oil will still likely need to be extracted for specialty uses (lubrication, plastics, etc.). Given that most of the oil is now in “difficult” places, petroleum engineers will be needed, although the number of such needed in the future is anyone’s guess.</p>

<p>Pay levels for petroleum engineers are high likely in part due to the places that one may have to work in, such as tar sands, offshore oil platforms, politically unstable, authoritarian, or extremely socially restrictive countries, extreme cold weather places, etc…</p>

<p>Lol. You make it seem like getting an engineering degree is as easy as pi. </p>

<p>Geologists work with petroleum engineers to find land and they too make a lot of money. Plus, it’s easier than engineering if money is all you’re after.</p>