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How Does the Oil Industry Affect the Unreached People Groups?
— by by Wes Kawato
Today, petroleum is the largest commodity on the world market. Oil is the fluid that runs our cars and heats our homes. This precious liquid runs the machines that make a high tech lifestyle possible. Much of our electricity is produced by oil burning generators. Planes run on a fuel made from oil. Oil is even part of the clothes we wear. Nylon is made from oil derivatives. This valuable fluid also helps us grow our food; oil is used to make many kinds of fertilizers.
Some people believe petroleum is a gift from God. Scientists who are Christians disagree on when God created oil. Hugh Ross, of Reasons to Believe, feels that it took thousands of years to create oil. He thinks that God allowed humanity to discover oil at just the right time, just as the Industrial Revolution took hold in the West.
The scientists of the Institute for Creation Research, (ICR) located in San Diego, disagree with Ross. They believe petroleum was created around 2400 B.C. during the Genesis Flood, an event that was triggered by a series of asteroid strikes. They theorize that the asteroid strikes created the rock formations that now trap oil in pools near the Earth's surface. According to ICR, oil was formed by the sudden burial of marine animals during the Genesis Flood. In their view, the heat and pressure caused by that global catastrophe hastened the formation of oil. It turned a 100,000-year process into one that took less than a year to complete.
But Ross and the scientists of the ICR do agree on another point. The rock formations needed to trap oil deposits don't last forever. They break down over time, allowing oil to seep down to depths where it can't be recovered. The world's petroleum source will not last forever.
The Emergence of the Oil Industry
In 1859, Edwin Drake struck oil near Titusville, Pennsylvania. Drake had been hired by George Bissel to drill this well. For the first time oil had been discovered in marketable quantities, at a depth of only 70 feet. Bissel founded the world's first oil company in 1859.
In 1870 John D. Rockefeller started the Standard Oil Company in Cleveland, Ohio, during a time when most oil companies were locally based. Few oil companies had wells in more than one state because they had to rely on expensive railroads to ship their oil. Long distance shipping was cost prohibitive, especially if it involved moving the oil out of state. Rockefeller's ability to manipulate railroad shipping rates allowed Standard Oil to run competitors out of business, or force mergers on favorable terms, like he did in 1872. In that year Standard Oil absorbed 22 competitors. By 1878 Standard Oil controlled 90 percent of America's oil production.
Prior to 1910 most of the world's major oil strikes were in the United States. The 1901 Spindletop oil strike was a case in point. That giant new oil field was located near Beaumont, Texas. One of the few pre-1910 foreign oil discoveries was in Russia, near the Caspian Sea. In 1885, the Royal Dutch Oil Company discovered oil in Sumatra, part of the Dutch Indonesian colony. The oil industry was expanding.
Demand for Oil Soars in the 20th Century
Until 1908 cars were too expensive for most people to own. That year Henry Ford introduced the Model T, the first automobile to be built on an assembly line. Mass production lowered the price of cars to where the middle class could afford to own one, and sales were phenomenal. The introduction of the Model T greatly increased the demand for oil. That was the same year that the Anglo Persian Oil Company, later called BP, discovered oil in Persia, now called Iran.
But Standard Oil kept the price of oil high, causing a demand for government action. In 1911 the Supreme Court declared Standard Oil to be a monopoly in violation of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. As a result, the company was split into seven smaller companies. One of these new oil firms was Standard Oil of New Jersey, which later became Exxon, now part of Exxon-Mobil. In 1933 Exxon obtained permission to drill for oil in Saudi Arabia. In 1938 the company struck oil near the Saudi city of Dhahran. The Dhahran Oil Field is still the largest petroleum deposit in the world. For the first time, a foreign oil field dwarfed the ones that had been discovered in the United States.
During the 1930s the Dupont Corporation provided an entirely different use for petroleum. Prior to 1935 oil was used primarily as a fuel. That year, Wallace Carothers, a Dupont scientist, used oil derivatives to invent a new fiber called nylon. By 1945 nylon had displaced silk as the leading fiber used in women's hosiery. Nylon was only the first of many oil derived fibers to be invented. Today such fibers are a major component of the clothes we wear.
By 1914, oil began to affect the way we waged war. During World War I both sides began fueling their ships and tanks with oil, so control of that liquid became very important in the war efforts. The need for oil influenced Britain's decision to invade Iraq in 1917. Iraqi oil kept the Allied offensive against Germany from grinding to a halt.
The need for oil would have an even greater effect on the strategy used by both sides during World War II. The need to protect her oil supplies forced Britain to mount a strong defense in Libya. The Allies could ill afford to let Italy and Germany recapture the newly discovered Libyan oil fields. Germany's need for oil forced Hitler's decision to advance into the Ukraine, resulting in a terrible defeat at Stalingrad. Failure to capture the Azerbaijan oil fields doomed Germany to defeat.
Japan's need for oil indirectly plunged the United States into World War II in 1941. That year the United States had cut off oil sales to Japan in protest against the Japanese invasion of French Indochina. Japan desperately needed oil for their war effort. After attacking Pearl Harbor they almost immediately took over Dutch Indonesia to get the oil.
Oil and Conflict in the Middle East
It is only fair to mention that oil itself is not the reason for conflict. Any valuable commodity easily becomes the source of conflict, be it cocaine in Colombia or diamonds in Botswana. Limited wealth and resources will always cause people to fight as long as greed is unlimited and people have a sin nature. Yet there have been many conflicts since the end of WWII involving oil.
During the 1950s, the Big Seven oil companies, led by Esso (now called Exxon), often manipulated the price of oil pumped from Saudi Arabia, keeping the price low. Oil producing nations in the developing world wanted a bigger share of the oil wealth, so they formed the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in 1960. By working together, OPEC nations could nationalize or threaten to nationalize the assets of the Big Seven oil companies. OPEC has also used its clout to protect its interest in keeping oil prices high.
Saddam Hussein's desire to wrest control of OPEC from Saudi Arabia led Iraq to invade Kuwait in 1990. Iraq already had the world's second largest deposit of oil. By taking over Kuwait's oil deposits, the third largest in the world, Iraq would have gained the ability to dictate OPEC policies. The desire to prevent Iraqi domination of OPEC was one of the factors that led to the First Gulf War in 1991.
It is only fair to say that petroleum wealth has provided much personal wealth and a higher standard of living for people who live in the oil-rich Arabian Peninsula nations. Leadership in the United Arab Emirates are developing the infrastructure of the capital city, Dubai. One hundred years ago, the people of Saudi Arabia were mostly poor Bedouins. Today, many of them are very wealthy.
With wealth comes power, and to some people in oil rich nations, a militant form of Islam like Wahhabism is the way to gain even more power. On April 25, 2005, U.S. News and World Report stated, "Fueled by its vast oil wealth, the Saudis are estimated to have spent up to $75 billion since 1975 to expand their fundamentalist sect, Wahhabism, worldwide." Long commented, "Once the money started flowing in, overnight those [oil producing] nations were transformed and gained the keen eye of the West. Moreover, millions of dollars of oil money flowed into religious groups providing money for the construction of mosques, the distribution of the Koran, and the sending of mullahs abroad to preach."
Much of the seed money used to found Al Qaeda came from Osama Bin Laden's oil rich family. Without that money Al Qaeda would have been powerless. Oil money has supplied Islamic terrorists with the weapons they have used to attack those who stand in their way. The interests of these militant groups are diametrically opposed to the interests of people who want to spread the gospel.
Battles for the control of oil have made it dangerous for missionaries to operate in many parts of the world. Such wars rage in places like Sudan and Nigeria. For the people who live in these places, the violence can become unbearable. The peoples of southern Sudan have been brutally attacked by the northern Sudanese government that covets the oil reserves in the south. Earlier this year, the Sudanese government struck a deal with southern rebels, which included a stipulation that both sides would have to share the oil wealth. We will see what happens in the coming years.
The Future of Oil, and Christian Efforts
One of the things that is strange about the oil industry is that it provides much wealth but few jobs. Many of today's oil-producing nations have much wealth, but they also have a high unemployment rate. Will Christians be willing to go to those nations and help them earn a living in other industries? This may or may not be possible; Christian petroleum engineers who have gone to Muslim countries have found their efforts to act as Christ's ambassadors limited. However, in some places, their efforts have led to bodies of Muslim background believers in Jesus.
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