Since as early as modern civilization itself, oil and gas have been pivotal to the advancement of modern towns, communities, cities and lives. From cars and planes to lights and manufacturing, oil & gas have been at every turn, driving us forward. In the US when John D. Rockefeller was the richest man in the world, now to companies like Exxon, oil has been at the helm of some of the most successful people and companies in the world. Our global dependence on oil over the past few decades has grown greatly. Rising populations and increased standards of living have all contributed to this. We need more Oil now more than ever before, using it to power an ever-changing world. Oil & gas have pushed the modern world’s innovation and development at a speed that we have never seen before. Every day more advancement’s are made in every field imaginable that forever change our lives. This is the same innovation that will kill the oil empire.
Oil has been around for quite some time and we have not exactly been foreign to it as we currently use it for more than we ever have. We do everything from power our cars and make plastic, fly and power our cities. You could say that it is our most used sought after material, arguably even more than Gold or other precious metals. No other product do we need so much that we are willing go to war for.
Because of the current ongoing conflict in the Middle East, and OPEC losing its market share due to “fracking” and off shore drilling by countries like the US. Thus in turn causing more and more tensions in the Middle East because of their economic dependence on the exportation of oil. Not to mention the price of oil only staying up mainly because of geopolitical reasons, the harmful effects that oil and gas causes on the environment especially the process of refining oil and gas, it is quickly becoming phased out. What better technology to take its place that the very thing that oil inspired, electricity. Renewable energy is becoming much cheaper than its counterpart and with much less pollutants and reasons such as government conflict that artificially keeps the price of oil up, people are starting to make the switch.
Cars are probably the first industry to make the switch from oil and gas to electric. Major companies with large market share like Ford, GM, Honda, Volkswagen, Nissan and many other major car brands are beginning to see the future with these electric cars, and with companies like Tesla paving the way with innovation and research that makes them cheaper competition has arose lowering the price. Especially now that Tesla is the most valuable car company in the world based on market capitalization, more established companies that have the recourses and infrastructure are starting to pump out more cars to avoid being left in the dust. This recent rise in popularity of hybrid and electric cars forces companies to produce more; this will saturate the market raising the supply and help them cheaper. Consumers are the driving force behind this turn in direction. The economy also plays a huge role in the switch as well. With stagnating wages and a lackluster economy added to the high price for gas and a collapsing industry making prices hard to predict, people cannot afford to purchase a car that gets less than 30mpg when currently the advancing technology is making some electric cars able to get 300 miles on a single charge.
How we power our homes and our 1st world lifestyle especially in the US uses a lot of this costly, harmful and unpredictable oil & gas, so how we power home and every day activities will probably be the next domino to fall in the collapse of the oil and gas industry. The technology with this still needs to be worked out with solar having issues with the heat and space it takes up and even wind and water running into early stage problems, this revolution will be later but without a doubt oil & gas is not the future.
One concern that is once again being pioneered by Tesla is how to store all of this electricity. With oil it is simple, you just put it in a barrel and when you need some, you just take some, very simple. But with electric it is not so simple. We have batteries that can hold a small amount of energy, but nothing in comparison to what we need. Even car batteries are two big and heavy to hold the energy we need in a reasonable space, not to mention corrosion and leakage of electricity. I am not an engineer in the slightest so I could not tell you how electric storage works, but Tesla is making strides in the field. In their Gigafactory which is the largest building in terms of footprint. They manufacture lithium-ion batteries and are hoping that they can solve this problem.
So we all know that oil is dying and the age of wars and conflict due to its need will hopefully end. Pioneering technology and innovation in this new era is bound to create exiting technology that will change the world forever and if one thing is for certain, there are companies new or old, people alive or not even born, that will make an unreal amount of money off of this massive shift in the world, and I can’t wait to see what’s next.
Equity Gazette 