thanks
your calculations indicate that there is no precise answer for this question - but we're in the ballpark.
13,800 hours of manual labor at $20 per hour is $267,600 per barrel.

And I could make the argument (strongly) that the energy quality of oil is higher than human labor...;)

Crude at $97.75 today a bargain!!!!

BTW Nate, IMO this was an excellent/important post - my understanding of how the world all hangs together and the 'underlying truths' took another leap forward with this. When will the whole book be published?

Thanks. I'm not sure. Certainly this year, but can't say when. Here is draft table of contents:

RENEWABLE ENERGY SYSTEMS:
ENVIRONMENTAL AND ENERGETIC ISSUES

Authors and Titles of Chapters

1) David Pimentel, College of Agriculture, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York: RENEWABLE ENERGY SYSTEMS; BENEFITS AND ENVIRONMENTAL COSTS
2) Tad Patzek, College of Engineering, University of California (Berkeley): CAN THE EARTH DELIVER THE BIOMASS-FOR-FUEL WE DEMAND?
3) David Swenson, Department of Economics, Iowa State University: A REVIEW OF THE ECONOMIC RISKS AND REWARDS OF ETHANOL PRODUCTION
4) Doug Koplow, Earth Track, Inc., Cambridge, MA and Ronald Steenblik, Research Director, Global Subsidies Initiative International Institute for Sustainable Development, Geneva: SUBSIDIES FOR ETHANOL PRODUCTION IN THE UNITED STATES
5) Charles Hall, Department of Environmental and Forest Biology, College of Forestry and Environmental Science, State University of New York, Syracuse, NY: PEAK OIL, EROI, INVESTMENTS AND THE ECONOMY IN AN UNCERTAIN FUTURE
6) Andrew Ferguson, Optimum Population Trust, Manchester, England: WIND POWER: BENEFITS AND LIMITATIONS
7) Robert Rapier, Conoco-Phillips, Aberdeen, Scotland: RENEWABLE DIESEL
8) Mario Giampietro, International Nutrition Institute, Rome, Italy, K. Mayumi, Tokushima University, Japan: COMPLEX SYSTEM THINKING IN RENEWABLE ENERGY SYSTEMS
9) Marcelo E. Dias de Oliveira, The Brazilian Alcohol Programme, Brazil: SUGARCANE AND ETHANOL PRODUCTION AND CARBON DIOXIDE BALANCES
10) Tom Gangwer: BIOMASS FUEL CYCLE BOUNDARIES: CURRENT PRACTICE AND PROPOSED METHODOLOGY
11) Edwin Kessler, Department of Meteorology, University of Oklahoma, Norman: OUR FOOD AND FUEL FUTURE
12) Nathan Hagens, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT, Kenneth Mulder, Green Mountain college: A FRAMEWORK FOR ANALYZING ALTERNATIVE ENERGY: NET ENERGY, LIEBIGS LAW AND MULTICRITERIA ANALYSIS
13) Robert M. Boddey, Embrapa-Agrobiologia, Rio de Janeiro, BR: ETHANOL PRODUCTION IN BRAZIL
14) Roger Samson, Resource Efficient Agricultural Production Canada (REAP-Canada): CELLULOSICS FOR THERMAL ENERGY
15) Maurizio Paoletti, Department of Biology, University of Padova, Italy, Tiziano Gomiero, (please provide affiliation and location): ORGANIC AGRICULTURE AND ENERGY CONSERVATION
16) Sergio Ulgiati, Department of Chemistry, Sienna University, Italy: BIODIESEL PRODUCTION IN ITALY: BENEFITS AND COSTS
17) Kenan Unlu, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA: CURRENT RESEARCH ON NUCLEAR ENERGY

And I could make the argument (strongly) that the energy quality of oil is higher than human labor...;)

I think you mean that the thinking of human beings is often of a thicker quality than crude...;)

While interesting as a fun comparison it is just that attitude of looking at energy as a be all and end all that has got us where we are. Trade me one willing worker (for his lifetime) for a D9 cat (and all the diesel it can use in it's lifetime) and look at the different world you and I will produce.

"One machine can do the work of fifty ordinary men. No machine can do the work of one extraordinary man." -- Elbert Hubbard

Unfortunately we have way too many ordinary men and their machines doing things we do not need and not enough extraordinary people doing without machines what needs doing.

"Ordinary men are made not born." -- anon ;)

Some men are born mediocre and some men have mediocracy foisted upon them.

Some men don't count and some men can't count ... 2 7? 3 4

(Just in jest robert2734, merely to see if this thread of nit wittery will continue:)