The Editor, Sir:

The perpetual rise in oil prices over the last four years has spawned a thought which has not been parleyed publicly, which is: are these rapid increases in price a sign of worldwide depleting oil reserves?

In 2006, a Department of State report to United States Congress about the status of Iraq's oil reserves, which indicated that Iraq's proven oil reserves is approximately 115 billion barrels which constitute 11 per cent of the world's proven oil reserves. By extrapolation, this yielded a total world proven oil reserves of approximately 1045 billion barrels.

Hence, with a current yearly consumption of 30 billion barrels which is predicated on current daily oil production of approximately 82 million barrels, reveals a startling statistic, which is that the world now has 33 years left in proven oil reserves.

Now, it is possible, with present technology, that more oil might be discovered, but with an approximate industry recovery rate of 30 per cent, that is for each barrel of oil produced 30 per cent is recovered through discoveries, it therefore means that our world oil life span is extended to 43 years at best.

An alternative fuel

However, the foregoing analysis is not intended to spark apocalyptic actions, but rather to highlight to our leaders and Jamaicans, that we must seek out an alternative fuel, and with rapid economic growth in countries like China and India, which will continue to put pressure on oil production, may very well lead to an earlier depletion in this commodity than I prognosticated.

Leaders, wake up, the time for action is now, conservation and nationalisation will be the knee jerk reaction of many countries, but the ultimate answer lies in coming up with an alternative source of energy, or our children generation will be faced with a Mad Max movie version of this world, and that's no joke.

I am, etc,

MALCOLM X

concernjamaicans@hotmail.com