Just How Inefficient Is Oil Production Anyway?

University of Massachusetts biologist Jeffrey Dukes took a good hard look at what goes into making oil. Unlike other researchers, who appear to assume coal or crude oil are almost free forms of energy, Dukes studied just what Nature does to produce, and what man does to retrieve, crude oil. He found that about 90 metric tons (198,000 pounds) of ancient plant matter are required to make one gallon of gasoline. He calculated that the fossil fuels burned in 1997 were created from ancient plant matter and energy equal to 400 times today’s annual net primary productivity (NPP).12 NPP represents the photosynthesis of both land plants and waterborne algae and plankton.13

Processing of oil and natural gas were found to be less than 0.01% efficient. If we assume gasoline contains 120,000 British thermal units (Btu) of heating value per gallon, that would mean it took 1.2 billion Btu to produce the fuel that might propel an SUV 15 miles. Having 10,000 Btu of energy input for one Btu of output gives fossil fuels an incredibly negative energy return.

In stark contrast, Dukes estimated that it would take only about 22% of today’s land-based NPP to replace all fossil fuel energy, not just transportation fuel. That’s right, plants could replace all the energy we use. And permaculturally designed energy polycultures can be more than ten times as productive as the current NPP.

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