Why are the oil companies looking for more sources of oil?

Question

instead of investing and finding out the next major energy source so they will not go down under when the wells do dry up this century? This would make the most business sense. If i owned a corp and seen it going to crumble due to a evaporation of a product, I'd get on to the next thing so I would stay in business. Why is this not big oil's logic?

Answer 1

Isn't this just a perfect situation. The struggle for oil continues, yet the use of it is obviously highly detrimental to our long-term survival.

The biggest problem is that some people view the long-term survival of the human race an insignificant issue compared with where they will get the money for their next meal, and others view the long-term survival of the human race insignificant in comparison with where they will get the money for their next Bugatti Veyron.

It's called greed. It's big, bad and ugly.

It means making what you can now and *&&* the future.

Remember, they are thinking that they can have their cake and eat it too.

They want to continue making money hand over fist in the now. Making money in the future will come, but they would rather be reactionary and fumble around when disaster strikes.

An ounce of prevention may be worth a pound of cure, but if they can keep that ounce, maybe they will never have to personally cough up the pound for the cure.

MMMMMMmmmm capitalism at its finest.

Anyhow, any way you slice it, the environmental crisis has already spelled the doom of these companies. Either they will crumble because of financial ruin or they will crumble because of mass deaths and the massive upheavals which the Earth will undergo in its efforts to balance us humans out of its ecological equation. If they are already ruined, they would rather go out rich than go out poor after having spent all their pennies on new technology to essentially put themselves out of business.

Here are some fun numbers for you.

If I drive 1000km (approx 600 miles) in my 10 year old car (we'll pretend this is the average age of car on the road and we'll pretend it gets around 30 MPG), we could throw an imaginary number of 20 gallons of gasoline and the equivalent of 1 liter of oil = 1/4 of an oil change (don't forget that oil itself is recycled, so we don't need nearly as much raw petroleum to put fresh bottles of oil on the shelf). Back where I used to live in Canada, that 20 gallons of gas would set you back around 80-90 bucks, so let's round it off at 100 bucks a month.

So in the hypothetical case where the average consumer could be said to be spending 100 bucks a month on gas/oil, the oil companies themselves are pulling a portion of that, whatever it may be...

Now let's fast-forward 20 years to another hypothetical situation. All cars on the road are now using either hydrogen pulled from grey water, or electricity pulled from the grid.

The same 1000KM now translates into a regular servicing which uses a tiny bit of grease, say less than 100ml.

What percentage of that person's income is now going to the oil company?

They have already acted too slowly. They don't control the battery companies. They don't control the Nuclear reactors. They don't control the hydroelectric dams. It's too late. Honestly, I say that's a good thing. They haven't shown themselves to have an attitude that cares about the planet or their customers.

As the economy shifts away from oil, they are going to lose almost everything. So why look for more oil?

Two reasons.

1 - to prolong their death-rattles and keep as strong a handle on things and as strong an income as possible before they collapse

2 - The oil industry does not only provide gasoline for your car. There are THOUSANDS of products that rely heavily on oil - Plastics is probably the next largest. And look at all that PACKAGING! Funny thing, while in some places, plastic packaging is out of control (virtually everything here in taiwan is wrapped in at least two layers of packaging - the little sushi rolls I like from 7-11 have three), for the most part, people are looking for ways to REDUCE plastics consumption. Recycled plastics must be a serious pain in the **** for oil companies...

Anyhow, hope that answers your question. With all the insanity.