Today, state legislators listened to the dire warnings of an energy leader at the Minnesota State Capitol.

The world's oil reserves are drying up according to Matthew Simmons, an energy investment banker from Houston who has recently written a book on the subject.

Simmons says oil production has already peaked and soon supply won't be able to keep up with demand.

"The demand models show that oil growth is just going to continue on straight up and the problem is: if we're peaking now, it's the gap between we needed 115 million barrels a day to -whoops - it looks like we only have 60 to use and it will create social chaos," says Simmons.

Already, a major oil company is recognizing the seriousness of this of this potential crisis.

Simmons says Shell Oil CEO Jeroen van der Veer is already preparing his company for a bleak future.

"He sent it out to every world-wide employee of Shell Oil Company and he basically said we're at a critical crossroads in history and by 2015 the world's demand for oil is going to outpace any way to supply it," says Simmons.

Even though we currently have enough oil, Simmons is warning people to plan for the worst case scenario.

"I think for planning purposes we should assume we've already passed the peak for crude oil a couple years ago and we might be lucky enough to hang around the current base for 3-4 years but we shouldn't plan on it. If you plan for something worse it makes it easier to adjust," says Simmons.

To conserve our remaining stores of oil, Simmons urges people to make dramatic lifestyle changes, such as traveling less and working from home."

"The first thing we need to do on a global basis is liberate the workforce as profoundly as when cell phones took over landlines," says Simmons.

Simmons says if this problem isn't solved, future generations will suffer.

"My wife and I have been the luckiest people on earth and we have five daughters and I'd like to think that they'd have some of the lovely lifestyles that we had, but if we don't figure this out they won't," says Simmons.

Even though Simmons says the oil fields are drying up, the ocean could serve as an alterative energy source to oil.

Oceans cover 70-percent of the globe and the energy potential is massive.

However, the technology is not quite there yet to harness the ocean's power.