According to a report by the research firm Wood Mackenzie Scots, the planet holds 3600 billion barrels of hydrocarbon "unconventional", ie resources buried deep or in the form of heavy oil. The study stresses that the transition to non-conventional oils may become necessary faster than what usually experts in the oil industry. But the extraction and exploitation of this oil demand the use of highly polluting technologies. At a time when oil companies refine their image and proceed at the turn of the oil after this alternative is it economically viable?

If instead of these hydrocarbons is now marginal, the increase in the price per barrel leading oil companies to consider their position in the extraction or break-even is becoming interesting (ratio between the operating cost and selling price). To date, only 8% of non-conventional oil is exploited or in the process of being implemented. Excluding if the International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that these hydrocarbons represent only 2 million barrels per day (MBD) in 2025, representing 3% of the daily world consumption (85 MBD), Wood Mackenzie believe it could potentially meet 20% of world demand in 2020. The transition to non-conventional hydrocarbons may become necessary faster than what usually experts in the oil industry even after 2020, it is not clear that conventional oil will be able to meet the Increased demand, "says Wood Mackenzie.

Anyway, extraction and exploitation of hydrocarbons unconventional requires large quantities of water, natural gas and solvents: a more expensive, and polluting energy greedy for conventional oil. One thing is shared by the Chief Economist of the International Energy Agency, Fatih Birol, "The Earth contains a lot of non-conventional hydrocarbons (...) but it is not technically feasible and environmentally unhealthy to extract oil at a high rate ".

Since then the oil company can consider two options: to prepare for the post oil, or continue in this direction by exploiting these resources for a high price, environmentally and financially. In the absence of a major technological revolution, the path followed by companies determine their image. Some like BP have clearly shown their claims. Turning proudly the slogan "Beyond the petrol (after oil), the company apparently wants to stand out from this path. Similarly, Total, which has just announced its intention to engage in nuclear seems to have consumed the rupture.