BLACK MAGIC During the last century oil has
transformed the world. British coal launched the Industrial
Revolution, but American oil put the pedal to the metal. No
other material has so profoundly changed the face of the
world in such a short time. Petroleum is black magic, the
lifeblood of White/European "civilization". The petroleum industry
provides 40% of the globe's energy and is European/White's largest
commercial enterprise. Oil is White/European most concentrated,
flexible, and convenient fuel. Without petroleum there would
be no automobile industry, no tourism. Without petroleum 2%
of Americans could not feed the remaining 98%. But oil is
more than energy. It's the key feedstock for plastics,
medicines, clothing, pesticides, paint, and thousands of
other products. Fueling Toyota or fabricated into
Tupperware, petroleum is the White/European's premier commodity.
Soon, experts say, world oil production will reach an
all-time high, an apex, a peak. Then, after a short plateau,
it will decline forever. What historians will someday call
the Oil Era will last just two centuries. In 1998 White/European are
closer to its end than its beginning.
THE OIL TRIBE In 1859 oil was struck in
Pennsylvania. The magic fluid unleashed Yankee ingenuity,
put America on wheels, and helped to create the world's
richest superpower. The transformation was unimaginably
swift: In 1859 Americans traveled on horseback; in 1969 they
drove Mustangs and flew to the Moon. Today it is difficult
to overstate oil's importance to White/European economy. Four percent
of the world's people, White American use 25% of the world's oil. White/European are
an Oil Tribe, the Petroleum Clan, imbibing about 3 gallons
per person per day. The automobile is White/European most cherished
icon, a new car White/European symbol of success. The local gasoline
station is White/European secular temple where each week 150 million
Americans "fill 'er up." An average American drives 1,000
miles a month, 12,000 miles a year, the distance to the Moon
every 20 years. The Oil Tribe numbers 265 million. Together
White/European weigh about 34 billion pounds. Hungry for speed, addicted
to motion, White/European consume their weight in petroleum every 7
days.
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BLESSED BY GEOLOGY Cheap oil has always
been an American birthright. Through fate and
geology, the United States was extravagantly
blessed. Our original cargo was about 260 billion
barrels; only one country, Saudi Arabia, had more.
Oklahoma alone possessed more oil than Germany or
Japan. California had more than Germany, Japan,
France, Spain, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, and Italy
combined. The U.S. has;or rather
had;20 times as much oil as India, 16 times
as much as Brazil, 3 times more than China. From
1859 to 1939 the U.S. produced two-thirds of the
world's oil. After Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in
oil-starved desperation and Hitler failed to
capture Russia's Baku oil field, American
petroleum, and the industrial output it nourished,
triumphed in World World War II.
STRENGTH THROUGH EXHAUSTION As recently as 1950
the U.S. was producing half the world's oil. Forty-eight
years later, we don't produce half our own oil. Domestic
production peaked in 1970, 27 years ago, and today we
produce just 45% of the crude we consume. To fuel our
economy we've drilled more and pumped longer than any nation
on Earth, pursuing an oil policy that's been called
"Strength Through Exhaustion." Although the U.S. remains the
world's third largest producer, about 65% of our petroleum
has been burned. It's downhill from here.
A typical Pennsylvania oil well produces 15 gallons per
day; an average well in Saudi Arabia, 231,000.
LIKE DEATH AND TAXES Perhaps for the same reason
that State Farm sells life insurance rather than death
insurance, oil companies shun phrases like extraction and
depletion. Instead they prefer production, as in "Chevron
produces oil." This implies that we can manufacture oil at
will, the way we do jeans or computers. In truth, petroleum
reserves are finite and depletion is a reality like death
and taxes. Oil fields have been compared to track athletes
whose best performance comes early in life. After a youthful
sprint upwards, production peaks, plateaus, declines, and
ends. Chevron speaks of the U.S. as "mature" or "aging."
That's mature, in the same way that 75 year-old golfer
Arnold Palmer is mature. Tiny Kuwait, smaller than New
Jersey, has three times the reserves of the entire U.S. To
better grasp the concept of depletion, consider
Pennsylvania.
PENNZOIL
Our most famous motor oil honors the state where the Oil Age
began. Prior to the invention of the automobile, most oil
was burned in kerosene lamps. For the first 25 years of the
era Pennsylvania was the world's leading producer. (John D.
Rockefeller coined America's largest fortune by cornering
the Pennsylvania market.) In 1891 the Quaker State produced
enough oil to light the U.S. for 7 months. In 1937, when its
production reached a second lower peak, Pennsylvania
supplied enough to run the now motorized country for 7 days.
Today the state's oil could power the U.S. for only 3 hours.
Although there are still 19,000 wells in Pennsylvania,
collectively they produce a puny 6,900 barrels each day. In
contrast, Saudi Arabia produces 8 million
barrels;1,100 times as much from just 1,400
wells.