Coal and oil have been the main sources of energy since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in the early 19th century. But they are sources of energy generally classified as non-renewable. So the question that concerns us today is: how long can we depend on these fossil fuels before they run out?
Coal was the first to be mined when Europe and the United States entered the industrial era. It was used in large quantities to produce steel and cement. Coal was supplied to land-based railway locomotives and steamships at sea. We burned it to heat our homes and workshops. From the late 19th century, coal was also used to run power plant generators.
When oil became available, its abundance and low cost meant that it was used instead of coal for many purposes. It is important to note that the convenience of liquid fuel and its ease of ignition led to the rapid proliferation of private cars, cargo trucks and airplanes for rapid travel. Industrialised countries became heavily dependent on oil as an indispensable energy source.
Waste of a resource
The promise of fabulous profits encouraged enterprising drillers to set foot in rich new oil fields. Natural gas from many wells was considered a by-product, sometimes almost a nuisance. In the wellhead, its value was so low that it was often burned simply to get rid of it. But with piping systems, it could be profitable to deliver them to common industrial facilities and housing at very low cost.
In oil-rich countries, the prodigious use of energy has been encouraged in every possible way. It was so cheap that waste was tolerated, and conservation was not worth thinking about. People thinking ahead realized that it could not last forever; sooner or later the oil reserves would have to run out. But known oil reserves were once sufficient for many years of use, and discoveries of new deposits continued to increase the reserves faster than they were running out.
Mass production of cars made them accessible to almost everyone, and car manufacturers became giant corporations, competing to sell each other with interesting gadgets added to each new year model. Governments have taxed the sale of cheap gasoline and built motorways everywhere. Cars were sold by tens of millions of people who wanted to travel faster and further. Oil companies followed a policy of seeking maximum immediate profit and paid little attention to the shortages that will inevitably affect future generations. But now that generation has arrived.
Determining the amount available
The political embargo imposed by the Arab countries in 1973 shook the optimism that previously prevailed over oil life. In 1978, a group of international experts warned that oil supplies could not meet the growing demand in 20 years, and perhaps even five years. Recent events have raised concerns about the likelihood of permanent global shortages in the early 1980s.
Suddenly serious problems arose. Oil supply is no longer determined solely by the technological capacity to find and produce it. It is further influenced by political manoeuvring. Governments have imposed complex tax structures and artificial price controls. Oil industry leaders complain that there are few incentives to undertake costly drilling to find new fields or to build the new refineries needed to meet growing demand.
Multinationals have encouraged oil production in countries that were previously lagging behind in exporting to industrial countries. Today, the most abundant oil reserves and the largest consumers of oil are in different, often conflicting, policy areas. OPEC countries, complaining that they have been exploited by more powerful nations, have come together to limit supply and thus raise prices and enforce policy requirements.
Thanks