Here's a letter by Don Boudreaux

to the editor of the New York Times. I will add links:

Physicist Ernest Behringer predicts that we'll run out of oil (Letters, May 18th). He tries to immunize his prediction by asserting that reliance on "the market and statistics" is based on "faith." But it is Prof. Behringer who relies blindly on faith - faith in an often-repeated proposition unsupported by any empirical evidence.

The eminent MIT economist M.A. Adelman, in an article published recently in Regulation magazine, reports that "At the end of 1970, non-OPEC countries had about 200 billion remaining in proved reserves. In the next 33 years, those countries produced 460 billion barrels and now have 209 billion 'remaining'. The OPEC countries started with about 412 billion in proved reserves, produced 307 billion, and now have about 819 left."

A growing population that Prof. Behringer mentions as one reason for his prediction not only consumes oil; more importantly, it supplies human creativity that makes finding oil easier.

Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University

Here are a few more exerpts from the Adelman article, in case you don't feel like following the link:

To predict ultimate reserves, we need an accurate prediction of future science and technology. To know ultimate reserves, we must first have ultimate knowledge. Nobody know this, and nobody should pretend to know.
...
...Campbell Watkins and I tabulated the sales value of proved reserves sold in-ground in the United States. Our results are a window on the value of oil reserves anywhere in which entrepreneurs can freely invest. (That rules out the OPEC countries and a few more.) If the cost of finding and developing new reserves were increasing, the value per parrel of already-developed reserves would rise with it. Over the period 1982-2002, we found no sign of that.
...
The miserable, mile-long lines outside of U.S. gasoline stations resulted from domestic price controls and allocations, not from any embargo. We ought not blame the Arabs for what we did to ourselves.
...
Oil prices fluctuate more because bettin on price must include calculations about not just supply and demand, but also about OPEC's quota decisions, plus the members' fidelity to their promises. Hence the world oil market is less predictable, more volatile, and more herky-jerky. In the huge oil price spike of late 1973, the change in supply was almost trivial yet the price effects were massive. The "crisis" was a classic case of buyer's panic.

I'm pushing the limits of Fair Use, so I'll just have to encourage you to read the article. The exerpts here show that his writing style is easy to handle and the article is only 6 pages PDF.