Science
Vol. 338 no. 6111 p. 1139
DOI: 10.1126/science.338.6111.1139
  • News & Analysis
Oil Resources

An Oil Gusher in the Offing, but Will It Be Enough?

Some stunning headlines followed the International Energy Agency's release earlier this month of its World Energy Outlook 2012. "U.S. Oil Output to Overtake Saudi Arabia's by 2020," blared Bloomberg, for example. That may be true, but the more significant aspect of the Outlook's projections was the prospect for world oil. Under the right conditions, the report says, the world could produce increasing amounts of oil through 2035 and meet the world's growing demand for energy as oil. The catch is "under the right conditions."