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The AAPG/Datapages Combined Publications Database
Houston Geological Society Bulletin
Abstract
Abstract: The Color of
Oil
:
The History, the Money and the Politics of the
World's Biggest Business
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By
Department of Chemical Engineering
University of Houston
Oil
is not just
black
... it affects all shades of life and
industry. In fact it colors everything.
The first color of oil
is green. The greenback, both literally and
figuratively, has defined the value of
oil
. Today the petroleum
industry is the world's biggest business, and hydrocarbons
(including coal) account for over 90 percent of all energy needs.
The Energy Wealth and Poverty of Nations is the prevailing indicator
at the turn of the millennium.
Oil
is
black
, and this, in
contrast to the crystalline transparency of water, contributes to
the great mystery often associated with finding and producing
oil
.
Oil
is red, white and blue with roots in northwest Pennsylvania
and with the giant ghost and modern manifestations of John D.
Rockefeller, no industry better exemplifies certain traits that
define the American character. Red is also the color of
oil
-as
red as the blood of the millions who died in two great world
wars and many other conflicts in this century. Central to the
causes and prosecution of the wars was access to
oil
.
The primary colors of oil
today are money (lots of it), technology
(basic but demanding) and people (special ones). The colors
of the rainbow can be seen in the 100+
oil
producing countries.
There are a do7en large petroleum producing and exporting
countries. Yet most have little in their history that links them to
wealth, technology and management. Corruption among the
elite and governments, mismanagement and the squandering of
the petroleum wealth are endemic. Culture is everything, and no
other human endeavor makes this as pointedly obvious as the
world of petroleum.
Government, willingly, by default or unwittingly, can turn oil
from some of its more constructive colors to a tawdry yellow.
Governments have infringed by regulation, neglected critical
research needs and failed to take strategic and enabling actions.
Environmentalism and the new green, couched in difficult-to-combat
superficial imagery has taken a sinister turn, highly
politicized and with gross disregard for the impact that the energy
industry has on the world economy. Using moralistic yet
blatantly dishonest slogans and pseudo-science, the environmental
movement has digressed dangerously and has replaced
some of the most radical movements for social experimentation
of the century. One of the most fundamental truths rarely
surfaces among the movement: there is no credible alternative to
hydrocarbons in both the near and far foreseeable futures.
The petroleum industry is here to stay and prosper in the third millennium. Energy demand will increase, and the use of petroleum will be emphasized and expanded. This is the color purple.
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