| Abstract: | This is an attempt to answer the question: “What happens when oil and natural gas production start to decline?” Forecasts of the world production and demand for oil and gas are reviewed briefly and it is concluded that large scale production of synthetic oil from coal and oil shale in particular will have to start by about 2000, and that energy intensive processes for the production of fuels such as methanol and hydrogen from non-fossil sources will have to start on a large scale during the period 2000–2030. |
