On 15 June in their testimony before the House Energy and Commerce Committee in the US, the chief executives of America’s leading oil companies argued that BP’s Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico was an aberration - something that would not have occurred with proper corporate oversight and will not happen again once proper safeguards are put in place.
According to other experts, this is fallacious, if not an outright lie. The Deep Horizon explosion was the inevitable result of a relentless effort to extract oil from ever deeper and more hazardous locations. In fact, as long as the industry continues its relentless pursuit of “extreme energy” - oil, natural gas, coal, and uranium obtained from geologically, environmentally, and politically unsafe areas - more such calamities are destined to occur.
At the onset of the modern industrial era, basic fuels were easy to obtain from large, near-at-hand energy deposits in relatively safe and friendly locations. The rise of the automobile and the spread of suburbia, for example, were made possible by the availability of cheap and abundant oil from large reservoirs in developed countries, and from the shallow waters near accessible coastlines. But these and equivalent deposits of coal, gas, and uranium are being rapidly depleted.
This means the survival of our energy-centric civilisation increasingly relies on supplies obtained from risky locations - deep underground, far at sea, north of the Arctic circle, in complex geological formations, or in unsafe political environments.
That almost guarantees the equivalent of two, three, four, or more Gulf-oil-spill-style disasters in our energy future.
Back in 2005, the CEO of Chevron, David O’Reilly, put the situation about as bluntly as an oil executive could.
“One thing is clear,” he said, “the era of easy oil is over. Demand is soaring like never before… At the same time, many of the world’s oil and gas fields are maturing. And new energy discoveries are mainly occurring in places where resources are difficult to extract, physically, economically, and even politically.”
O’Reilly promised then that his firm, like the other energy giants, would do whatever it took to secure this “difficult energy” to satisfy rising global demand. And he proved a man of his word. As a result, BP, Chevron, Exxon, and the rest of the energy giants launched a drive to obtain traditional fuels from hazardous locations, setting the stage for the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster and those sure to follow.
As long as the industry stays on this course, rather than undertaking the transition to an alternative energy future, more such catastrophes are inevitable, no matter how sophisticated the technology or scrupulous the oversight.The only question is: What will the next Deepwater Horizon disaster look like - other than another Deepwater Horizon disaster? The choices are many.