According to one study by the United States Geological survey, 86 percent of oil reserves in the United States are the result not of what is estimated at the time of discovery but of the revisions and additions that come with further development.

But eventually it's a question of access: Getting access to fields is on top of the oil companies' agenda. We see a substantial build-up of supply occurring over the coming years.

Even Silicon Valley investors have put well over a $1 billion in new energy technologies.

According to one study by the United States Geological survey, 86 percent of oil reserves in the United States are the result not of what is estimated at the time of discovery but of the revisions and additions that come with further development.

Clearly, the Chinese need the resources, but I don't think they want to clash with the industrial world which happens to be the market for their goods.

We experienced similiar fears in the 1880s, at the end of World War I and II. And we ran out in the 1970s.

So the major obstacle to the development of new supplies is not geology but what happens above ground: international affairs, politics, investment and technology.