Oil scarcity can be caused by a number of factors, including technical limitations, political maneuvering, and capacity problems. This resource is considered scarce when the supply cannot meet the demand. Rising demand increases pressures on existing supplies and can create scarcity. The world’s supply of oil is limited to existing deposits and the ability to access and exploit them, which can become extremely expensive with some remote or complex deposits. Costs for oil and fuel are not necessarily immediately linked to oil scarcity because there are other factors involved, but they certainly play a role.
Oil has the highest energy leverage of any resource; it now delivers about 75 times the energy needed to extract it. Most of the technology and products developed and produced in the 20th century were either powered or manufactured with oil. However, many leading oil geologists now argue that the world is quickly reaching the point where total world consumption of oil will soon outstrip the production rate of oil world-wide.