The top ten countries in worldwide oil production are Saudi Arabia, Russia, the United States, Iran, China, Mexico, Norway, Canada, Venezuela and the United Arab Emirates. Saudi Arabia produces around ten million barrels of oil each day nearly nine million of which they export. The United States produces close to eight million barrels per day, but every drop of it is needed for use at home. Not a drop is sold elsewhere. Americans import more oil than any other country and they are the single largest consumer of oil worldwide at about twenty million barrels daily.

Due to the large amount of oil that is consumed and the fact that the amount being used continues to increase while the oil production does not has many people, both researchers and laymen, concerned that supplies are going to start to get low. This has brought about many studies trying to determine when oil supplies will peak, meaning when they will hit their highest point, and then begin to decline. Many feel that this peak is going to happen within the next couple of years, or as long as the next decade. Either way considering the amount of oil we use, that begins to be a scary prospect.

There is no way to reassure mankind that there will be enough continuous oil production to allow us to let opportunity slip though our fingers. While we have the oil supply and are not watching, it will get low enough that we have to ration. Now is the time that we should be working hard to make changes in what we need oil for. It is time to encourage research into alternate fuel sources. It is time to reward those who are working in these fields with grants and other incentives so they will continue their research and begin to pull us away for fossil fuels before the production of oil becomes an issue we cannot live with. This is also the season when we should be taking a long hard look at our consumption habits and begin to find ways to decrease our dependence on fossil fuels, by making some lifestyle changes. The last thing that mankind needs is to have to give in further to the hold that oil rich countries have over those who already rely on them more than they want to. By making plans now to reduce our dependence on those reserves of oil, we not only free ourselves, but also make a much better world for those that will follow.