21st-century oil: Hard to find/hard to produce

Feb. 15, 2013
The era of cheap oil is over. Chris Rhodes, an expert on energy and environmental issues, explains why.

UK energy expert, Chris Rhodes, sees no easy path to fulfilling oil demand. "The big, easy-to-find fields have been discovered and are now mostly depleted," he explains. Remaining reserves are thought to lie mostly under the sea rather than onshore, and new fields will be smaller than previous discoveries, situated in more difficult environments and where oil will be more challenging to produce.