oil
Another important factor in the growth of the oil industry has been the development of petrochemicals. Many products have been created by chemists from petroleum. These include most of our modern plastics and fertilizers. Indeed, the increase in agricultural productivity - also known as the green revolution - could not have taken place without petroleum-based chemicals, including not only those that enrich the soil like fertilizers but also those that kill weeds, insects, and other pests - herbicides, insecticides, and pesticides. The greatest problem for the future of the oil industry is that petroleum is not a renewable natural resource. All the petroleum that exists, no matter whether it is hidden under the earth or the seas, was created millions of years ago. As the use of oil has increased, so have the predictions that oil will soon be exhausted. Nevertheless, improved techniques for exploration, drilling, and recovery of petroleum have kept the supply ahead of the world's consumption. The oil industry, however, looking forward to the day when the supply of oil may become exhausted, is engaged in research to find not only substitutes for oil but also other sources of energy.
Experts disagree about when oil supplies will start running down. At the start of this century, BP's boss Sir John Browne predicted that current level of production might be maintained for 30 or 40 years. Others say that supplies are about to peak or are already in decline. One thing is certain: oil is a finite resource, and it will run out. Without imports, Britain's total reserves are enough to satisfy just 7.5 years of its peoples' present consumption, with the US having reserves enough to satisfy its people's voracious appetite for a mere 3 years. These reserves will disappear even more quickly if, as predicted, world consumption increases by nearly 55 per cent between 2000 and 2025. Significantly, in the developing world oil consumption is expected to grow at two or three times the rate of the industrialized world in the next two decades. From 1997 to 2020 the oil that will be consumed by China alone is estimated to increase by 150 per cent. While oil supplies are going down international demand is going up... and so is the competition. Already pipelines are being taken to ever-increasing lengths to get at the oil on which industrialized economies and societies so heavily rely. As supplies start to dwindle, and the price of oil starts to rise, companies will find profit in places previously considered - because of their geography or political situations - impenetrable. US professor of peace and security studies Michael Klare predicts the emergence of a new geography. 'Attracting the greatest interest,' he says, 'will be places that harbour particularly abundant supplies of vital materials.' Possessing two-thirds of known future oil reserves, the Persian Gulf region (which includes Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait) is most likely to experience the interest of oil competitors. The Caspian Sea Basin (which includes the Central Asian states of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan) is next, with a fifth of the world's total reserves. There is now an extensive US military build-up in both regions. US companies and those of its allies are now being given the rights to extract the oil and lease the land over which their pipelines can run. These pipelines will map out strategic allegiances. For countries not playing on the US team the consequences will be significant.
Walk into any modern home and you'll find petroleum-based products everywhere; preservatives in food; soapy detergent liquid; synthetic fibres in clothes and carpets; plastic bottles and bags; chemicals that fertilize plants; synthetic rubber on shoes; make-up, nail polish, lipsticks and hair-dye. Oil makes the difference between living in a developed or a developing world. It heats houses, provides fuel for cars and machinery and lubricates the generators that produce electricity. As a primary energy producer, oil creates power. And oil pipelines bring that power to the people.