Pourquoi le pétrole est partout ?

Oil has been known since Prehistory and became the world's primary energy source in the 1960s

Oil is a liquid rock resulting from the decomposition of ancient organisms such as plankton and plants, forming pockets of residue beneath layers of rock

Depending on terrain type and local tectonics, oil can be buried thousands of meters beneath the oceans or emerge almost at ground level

• Gasoline, diesel, and fuel oil • Plastics of all kinds • Detergents, textiles, and cosmetic creams • Used daily without even realizing it

In the ancient Middle East, oil was easily accessible by simply digging a hole in the ground

• Manufacturing adhesives for tool handles and arrowheads • Caulking boats to seal hulls • Use as natural bitumens throughout history

Greek fire, a mysterious Byzantine weapon, was likely an oil derivative projected onto enemy ships through a pressurization system, ancestor of napalm

• Fumigations to treat mysterious diseases according to Varro • Application to wounds to stop infections • Gabian oil in the 17th century reputed effective against gout, asthma, and snakebites

From the mid-19th century, oil underwent industrial exploitation in the Balkans and the United States, used mainly for lighting in oil lamps

In 1908, oil was discovered in phenomenal quantities at Abadan in Iran, a city at the head of the Persian Gulf that rapidly became the world's oil capital

• Invention of the Diesel engine in 1897 by Rudolf Diesel • Phenomenal success at the 1900 Paris Exposition Universelle • Grand Prize and immediate interest from all world militaries

• Discreet exhaust gases compared to thick black smoke from steam engines • Liquid fuel much easier to extract and transport than solid coal • Quick refueling and lower labor costs

Unlike coal requiring mines with galleries and explosion risks, liquid oil only needs vertical drilling to pump and transport through pipes

• A few derricks can pump oil 24/7 without wages or strike risks • Fuel easier to refuel with a hose and pump • Superior efficiency allowing fewer stops and covering immense distances

In the 19th century, British ships depended on coal relays spaced 2-3 weeks apart, forcing them to control Gibraltar, Malta, Suez, Aden, and the Trucial States

Oil and the Diesel engine reduce reliance on coal stops and enable submarine development, long limited by engine problems

Oil rapidly replaced coal in all sectors, creating a new 20th-century lifestyle with automobiles as revolutionary tools of freedom

• Oil found in every region globally • Continuous field discoveries keeping prices low • From the 1950s onward, multiplication of offshore platforms at sea

The Middle East and Venezuela, the two best-endowed regions, become zones of intensive control with oil companies backed by their respective governments

In 1951, Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh nationalizes Iranian oil controlled by the United Kingdom, triggering a coup organized by the CIA and MI6 in 1953

Oil becomes absolutely essential to industrialized societies, price fluctuations directly influencing all global economies

The oil shocks of 1973 and 1979 mark moments of sharp price increases causing economic slowdowns worldwide

OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) is created to control prices and ensure benefits for producing nations

• Petrodollars: the colossal sums of money generated by oil • Petromonarchies: regimes profiting massively from oil revenues • Oil as primary revenue source for certain countries

Over 1,100 barrels of oil, approximately 175,000 liters, are produced globally every second

• Thousands of deaths from respiratory diseases • Oil spills and ocean pollution • Carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere causing temperature increases • Rising ocean levels accelerating natural disasters

Within a few decades, all known reserves will be exhausted; new fields will be difficult to access, sparsely concentrated, and complex to process, costing far more

• Our generation will likely witness the end of oil • Alternatives already exist but often have drawbacks like rare materials • Alternatives must be implemented now and pressure applied on leaders to accelerate the transition