temperature, scientists started wondering if oil and gas will remain our primary energy resource in 30 years. In this essay, we are going to examine the amount of remaining oil and gas reservoirs, unconventional production methods and their costs, as well as current renewables’ situations and costs.

Conventional or unconventional

Oil and gas typically began with a mixture of fine sediments such as silt and clay, combined with organic remains of aquatic microorganisms called plankton. This organic mud can accumulate across wide areas offshore or on lake bottom where plankton is abundant. If the organic mud is covered by another type of rock, it turns to organic shale overtime. When organic shales are deeply buried underground and exposed to the increasing levels of Earth’s heat, organic matters begin to convert to oil and gas.

Shale that has formed oil and gas is called source rock. The tight pattern in source rock structured by tiny silt and clay grains makes the rock nearly impermeable. For this reason, it has been long thought that it is impossible to drill hydrocarbon directly from source rock.

Geoscientists found that natural geological structure could create oil and gas reservoirs, from which we could easily extract. Deeply buried rocks layers are deposits in an aquatic environment, where it still has water rather than air between rock grains. Hydrocarbon is lighter than water, therefore when oil and gas escape from the source rock and encounter porous and permeable rocks (also known as reservoir rocks), such