The question of what size oil discovery it would take to alleviate issues of oil supply and impact pricing was posed to PetroSun, Inc.’s CEO Gordon LeBlanc Jr at an internal symposium of a major corporation. He was not optimistic that enough discoveries could be made over the short-term to sustain world demand.
The truth is even if the discovery of a field with two billion in recoverable reserves was announced it would not stave off the decline, given that two billion barrels of oil is only a 24-day supply of production volume and world crude oil refining capacity.
Where will the world turn to feed its ever growing demand for energy? PetroSun proposes algae-to-biofuels and other sustainable alternative forms of energy. While a number of bio-feedstock are currently being experimented with for biodiesel (and ethanol) production such as corn, jathropa, sugar beets, and sugar cane to name a few, all of these feedstocks are being used on a small scale basis but face the food or energy controversy. An example of that controversy comes out of South Africa were the topic of using food crops for feedstock for biofuel production has caused some heated discussions. The government of
The use of algae, some experts say, eliminates the concern over food security and fears of price increases and has emerged as a solution as one of the most promising sources of feedstock, especially for biodiesel production, for three reasons. The first reason being is that the yields of oil from algae are higher than those from traditional oilseeds. The second reason is that algae can grow in places away from farmlands and forests, thus minimizing the damages caused to the eco-and food chain systems. Last but not least, and maybe the most important component of algae as a feedstock is that it can be grown in sewage and next to power-plant smokestacks where it digests the pollutants.
On www.oilgae.com it says that while the research into algae as a source for biodiesel is not new, “the current oil crises and fast depleting fossil oil reserves have made it more imperative for organizations and countries to invest more time and efforts into research on suitable renewable feedstock such as algae.”
PetroSun was selected by a government laboratory to conduct a joint development of an algae derived alternative fuel system that would be utilized by the military. “We agreed to the program, but made it known that the cost per gallon based on the restrictive requirements, may exceed $20 per gallon. This posed no problem as the appropriations request stated that a gallon of diesel costs $100 per gallon in hostile locations. However, in the spirit of our political election season the appropriations request was tabled until 2009,” LeBlanc said.