I come from a state in Nigeria that is rich in oil. My Sate, Imo, is among the nine (9) oil producing states, located in the South East of Nigeria. I have often wondered what the world would be like without oil and its derivatives. As a child, I have watched geologists and surveyors search our little villages and other places where crude oil could be trapped underground. After making some specific measurements and taking samples, they drill to confirm that there really is oil. In the early days, it was learned that successfully impacting an oil field could have meant being sprayed by a stream of mud and oil, missing the initial spill and risking an explosion.
However, by means of special measuring instruments and valves, today’s drilling rigs prevent this from happening. Today smaller and deeper boreholes are also possible. Eventually, the pressure that pushes the oil and gas out decreases, and must be maintained by injecting water, chemicals, carbon dioxide, or other gases such as nitrogen. Depending on the area, the oil can have different degrees of density. Light oil is naturally much preferred as it is easier to obtain and refine. Modern technology includes horizontal drilling, virtually parallel to the earth’s crust, which reduces the number of wells that must be drilled. Offshore drilling, which began in 1947 in the Gulf of Mexico, greatly increased oil production. Of course, the extraction method used has a direct effect on the price of the final product.
In the early days, small diameter wooden pipes were built to transport oil as they were cheaper and less cumbersome than transporting it in cans/barrels. Today’s piping systems have evolved and multiplied. Made primarily of metal, they help transport not only crude oil to refineries but also final petroleum products to distributors. As useful as it is, a pipeline system is impractical for transporting large amounts of oil abroad. There are tankers and specially designed ships up to 400 meters long. Barges and railcars are also common means of transporting bulk oil.
Oil, popularly known as the ‘Black Gold’, is very essential for industrialized nations and they depend on oil and its products for many things. Just think about heating oil, greases, waxes, asphalts, and items made from petrochemicals: planes, cars, boats, adhesives, paint, polyester clothing, sneakers, toys, dyes, aspirin, deodorants, makeup , recording discs, computers, televisions, telephones. Every day, many people use some of the more than 4,000 petroleum products or items that shape modern life, but what about the damage to the fabric of life that has characterized the history of petroleum since its inception? ?
Oil made from petroleum is used to lubricate motor vehicles, bicycles, strollers, and other things with moving parts. Oil reduces friction, which slows down the breakdown of machine components. But that is not all. Oil is used to make fuel for jets, automobiles, and heating systems. A multitude of cosmetics, paints, inks, medicines, fertilizers, and plastics, as well as myriad other items, contain petroleum products. Daily life for many would be drastically different without oil. Oil and its derivatives have a greater variety of uses than perhaps any other substance in the world.
The Bible tells us that more than two millennia before Christ, Noah, following divine instructions, built a gigantic vessel and used tar, possibly a petroleum substance, to make it waterproof (Genesis 6:14). Petroleum substances were used by the Babylonians for their kiln-dried bricks, by the Egyptians in the mummification process, and by other ancient peoples for medicinal purposes. Who would have imagined that this product would become so important in today’s world? Nobody can deny that. The word “oil” comes from Latin and means “rock oil”. It is often used to identify two closely related compounds: natural gas, also known as methane, and oil. Both substances sometimes seep to the surface through cracks in the ground. As for oil, it can be liquid or in the form of asphalt, pitch, bitumen or tar. Modern industrial civilization depends on oil.
The use of petroleum oil for artificial lighting was the springboard to petroleum’s fame. As early as the 15th century, oil from shallow wells was used in lamps, there were shallow oil deposits where oil, in the form of kerosene, was used for lighting, and by the mid-19th century, there was a thriving oil industry. in Eastern Europe. In the United States, it was primarily the search for a high-quality highlighter in the 1800s that caused a group of men to turn their efforts toward oil. These men correctly concluded that in order to produce enough kerosene to supply the market, they would have to drill for oil. So, in 1859, an oil well was successfully drilled in Pennsylvania. The oil rush had begun.
Now there is the great oil chase, and before anything else can be done, people first and foremost calculate their financial gain because all oil pays a better price. But, the world has not been and can never be governed purely and exclusively on the principle of economy. Gone are the days when people set up their business enterprises for the purpose of serving the people. That’s why today, every unfinished space is now a gas/gas service station or one under construction. Each house is a warehouse for oil or petroleum products, each enclosure is a market. And the kids are raised in an environment full of money and we all continue with the mindset that money is everything and everything is money.
In many countries, the determination to control oil has been the cause of conflict and suffering. Oil has long gone from being a commodity to a “strategic asset” and, as such, it has been used between nations to exert political influence, through embargoes and sanctions. Today, oil wells, refineries and tankers have been the target of terrorist attacks, often causing terrible damage to the environment. Because oil is king and the creator of wealth, people take undue advantage of the situation to override or overthrow others.
No matter how important essential oil is to modern life, it is still deeply embedded in the very heart of politics and the special interests of a few powerful people, who are always interested in creating artificial scarcity in order to enrich themselves. However, it is not oil that is the origin of all these ills, but the greed and thirst for power of man who have given oil its bad reputation. Happily, the future of oil, and indeed of all energy sources, is not in the hands of nations, but in God, the Creator of the Earth, who has promised that soon all environmental and social problems related to the use and abuse of the earth’s resources will disappear (Revelation 4:11).
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