Offshore oil well drilling platform Continental Oil Co., C.A.T.C., Gulf of Mexico, 1955.
TheAge of Oil,[1] also known as theOil Age,[2][3] thePetroleum Age,[4][5] or the Oil Boom, refers to the era in human history characterised by an increased use ofpetroleum in products and as fuel. Though unrefined petroleum has been used for various purposes since ancient times, it was during the 19th century that refinement techniques were developed andgasoline engines were created.
Although crude petroleum oil has been used for a variety of purposes for thousands of years, historians generally consider the Oil Age to have started in the mid-1800s with the advance of drilling techniques and the commencement of the US oil boom. Alternatively, the age of oil can be placed in the first period until the early 1900s, when oil consumption andcombustion engines utilization increased. Contemporary industrial society is built largely on petroleum resources, but the future of the Oil Age has become increasingly controversial as the effects of climate change have become apparent, and use of alternative energy sources increases.
Since the beginning of theIndustrial Revolution,fossil fuels have been used as sources of energy.Coal began to be widely used after 1800 and would continue to be the dominant source of fuel into the 20th century. However, two events set the stage for the Age of Oil: The first was in 1846, whenAbraham Gesner inventedkerosene making coal and petroleum practical raw materials for lighting fuel. The second was in 1859, whenEdwin Drake invented the first modern drilling process for deep oil wells.John Davison Rockefeller founded theStandard Oil Company, which dominated the oil industry and was the first great U.S. business trust. He founded the company in 1870, and aggressively ran it until he officially retired in 1897.[6]Karl Friedrich Benz developedpetrol-poweredautomobiles by 1878 and, in 1879, obtained a patent for the practical automobile. The invention of the internal combustion engine was the major influence in the rise in the importance of petroleum.
The beginning of the contemporaneous age of oil is commonly thought of originating in 1901 with the strike atSpindletop byCroatian oil explorerAntun Lučić and Texan Patillo Higgins, nearBeaumont, Texas in the United States which launched large-scale oil production and soon made the petroleum products widely available.[7]
Powered by the increased use of petroleum, thepost–World War II economic expansion was a period of economic prosperity in the mid-20th century which occurred, following the end ofWorld War II in 1945, and lasted until the early 1970s. It ended with the1973 oil crisis. In 1956, GeophysicistM. King Hubbert deduced that U.S. oil production would peak between 1965 and 1970 (peaked in 1971) and that oil production would peak "within half a century" on the basis of 1956 data.[8] In 1989, another peak was predicted byColin Campbell[9]
Since the 1960s and 1970s, when petroleum production peaked in many industrialized nations, a frequent topic of speculation among scholars has been when worldwide production will peak, as well as when and how the oil age will ultimately end. According to some definitions the age is defined as ending at the point where consumption outstrips the decreasing production making its use unprofitable or impossible.
Oil price trend, 1861–2007, both nominal and adjusted to inflation.
Peak oil is the point in time when the maximum rate of petroleum extraction is reached, after which the rate of production is expected to enter terminal decline. Many believe that we are at or close to the peak, positioning us in the second half of the oil age.[11] Some estimate, assuming current consumption rates, current oil reserves will last through at least the year 2040.[12] In 2004, OPEC estimated, with substantial investments, it would nearly double oil output by 2025.[13]
