According to the articles the alternatives to oil in the future are going to be hydrogen powered fuel cells, which are big batteries that run on hydrogen. They are being highly researched by car companies. They can also maybe in the future be used to power other things such as electricity for housing and the like. Also bioethanol is being researched for an alternative. Which already in use is a mixture of petrol and ethanol. Although for now it is highly expensive due to the costs of subsidizing the ethanol, but research is underway to make bioethanol efficiently from any plant material. .
2. According to the articles OPEC will likely not gain more influence in the future. They will not because in the future technology for alternatives of energy will surpass the OIL AGE. Although the articles did mention that OPEC does have its grip around the oil consuming countries such as U.S., Britain, and the like. One country, Saudi Arabia, which has the most oil, approximately one quarter in the world, in the OPEC bunch will probably grow on influence by itself simply due to the fact that it produces the most oil and will not run out of oil before any other country. I think in the future OPEC's influence will stay steady, unless of course there is some change in the output of oil from an outside cause. According to the articles there is a lot of tension due to the increasing presence of American forces in the middle east. The OPEC countries do not exactly like the U.S. They basically use America and America uses them. They get paid for oil and America receives oil. It is hard to tell the future on that aspect, but eventually we will find alternatives to oil, and hopefully it comes sooner rather than later and OPEC's days will be over.
3. According to the articles the North Sea's oil and Siberian oil will not play a big role and most likely will not be able to balance OPEC. North Sea's oil is on a dramatic decline on the output of oil.