Since the beginning of the 20th century, oil has been the main fuel for Western economies. The use of coal was already widespread but oil turned out to be much more efficient and with much less environmental impact.
Until the end of the Second World War, the main producer in the world was the United States. For example, the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey, which later became Exxon, had been established in 1870 by, among others, John D. Rockefeller. The point is that US demand exceeded its supply, so the country began to import massively from abroad, mainly from the Middle East. Until the 1970s, the supply of fossil fuels and oil seemed limitless. This changed radically with the 400% price escalation decided by some OPEC countries following the Arab-Israeli war in October 1973. The increases in 1973-74 and later in 1979-80 (due to the Iran-Iraq war) they made many countries see how tremendously dependent they were on oil. If anyone has wondered where the 55-mile speed limit in the United States comes from, it is the result of one of the many measures that the Carter administration tried to implement in 1977, some of which are still in effect 42 years later.
The 1980s and 1990s brought eight years of the aforementioned Iran-Iraq war and the first Gulf War. This lasted very little and with a short-lived impact on black gold, but what this war did bring regarding is that most of the oil companies began to invest massively in non-OPEC countries (Canada, Brazil, Mexico , Oman or United Kingdom) to avoid future boycotts or situations of shortage.
The arrival of the 21st century brought a highly unstable oil market due to the growing demand from emerging countries such as the BRICS. 9/11 brought the invasion of Afghanistan and the second Gulf War with occasional increases in the price of crude, interrupted by increases in production, mainly from Saudi Arabia. The desire for increased use of nuclear energy has been reduced mainly to Russia and China with world consumption that is at levels of the beginning of the century.
At present, the main economic power in the world has a goal of consumption in renewable energies that should reach 20% of the total for next year. The other side of the coin is that in the last decade the production of the so-called shale gas or slate has increased exponentially through fracking, which has greatly reduced the cost of extracting gas and oil with highly invasive techniques in the environment. For years, great scholars of raw materials have put their finger on a possible future event such as that crude oil reserves will run out at any given time. It hasn’t arrived yet, but in a world where electric mobility is becoming more and more widespread, perhaps collectively we are not preparing for the not too distant future.
