The record drop in oil prices began in 2016. Panic broke out on the US and Asian oil exchanges. First of all, this affected the main economic indices of the United States, then the devaluation of the national currency of China began. In Russia, where oil is the main export commodity and the foundation of the economy, a sharp decline in quotations instantly affected the exchange rate of the national currency. In the Middle East, in connection with the collapse of oil prices, a redistribution of spheres of influence began. For more than 100 years, the world has not been handling oil correctly. What is its real purpose? Will any of today's reserves remain for future generations? What, then, is the mysterious "black gold" that is so massively influencing the minds of people in particular and the world economy in general?
Oil is a very ancient product. The youngest oil was formed 35 million years ago. For example, in the recently discovered "Eurasia" oil field in the Caspian, according to preliminary calculations of drilling a superdeep well 15 kilometers deep into the depths of the earth, it is planned to extract deposits there that are over 600 million years old.
Today in science there are two main theories of the origin of "black gold" from organic and inorganic matter. According to one scientific version, "the blood of the earth" occurred as a product of the vital activity of living organisms and as a result of the decomposition of extinct organic beings. In this case, the huge masses of dead living organisms served as the raw material for oil, which, as a result of the impact of catastrophic earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, turned out to be buried under a layer of ash, frozen lava and earth.
Then, according to this theory, oil is not only an energy resource, but in the future it can become a source of food biomass for food production in order to feed the ever-increasing huge population of the planet every year. On the basis of a chemical laboratory, petroleum biomass in special fermenters doubles in almost a few hours, then triples in volume and continues to grow exponentially. The grown biomass is cleaned of the substrate and carcinogenic compounds, then it is dried according to a certain technology, and becomes a good-quality source of protein, vitamins, and a number of other microelements.
The existing other more optimistic version of the origin of oil was first described by the great Russian scientist Dmitry Ivanovich Mendeleev. According to this hypothesis, biogenic matter is constantly formed in the depths of the earth from a mixture of liquid and gaseous substances, and will be produced there until the planet Earth has completely cooled down.
As if to confirm the second theory of the appearance of "black gold" on the planet, Vietnam has been pumping oil from the same well for decades, but the field has not yet been depleted by one percent, as if natural hydrocarbons are being filled there from an invisible source.
Huge outlays of capacity are required for the extraction of scarce natural resources: oil, gas and other types of crude oil supplied to the world market. The prime cost of Russian oil is on average $ 5- $ 6 per barrel of oil, its price is set by the budget and actually amounts to 65% of taxes: mineral extraction tax, value added tax, excise tax, etc. Therefore, the Russian budget, for example, includes the minimum allowable profitable price is $ 15 per barrel of crude oil. If the price for this “red line” falls further, taxes on oil workers will be zeroed to save the industry, and the Russian economy, still tied to the oil pipe, will stagnate.
In the West, the cost of gasoline falls along with oil quotations, while in oil exporting countries, on the contrary, fuel becomes more expensive. Here is such a paradox - the price of gasoline is growing on the domestic market of states producing hydrocarbons. Similar manipulations were already observed in 2009, when for 5 months the world oil prices were kept at a historical minimum of $ 34 per barrel. Within the framework of the same economic model, if the price of an oil barrel falls to $ 10, Russia will face an economic recession similar to the dashing 90s of the last century, a crisis and subsequent depression, as in the 30s in America.
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Much in the modern world depends on the cost of a conventional 159 liter barrel of crude oil, sometimes even hundreds of human lives. Today, warehouses for finished products of fossil fuels are overflowing around the world. Tankers with oil products flooded the world's largest harbors in Asia, Europe, America, as a result, the ports turned into indefinite parking for oil tankers. Most of the ships do not sail anywhere, but simply stand on the dock, filled with oil to the eyeballs, like floating oil storage tanks.
The owners of the "black gold" loaded into them expect to sell their goods at the ports of arrival, but due to the oversaturation of the market with natural fuel, they cannot sell it for months. Experts estimate the volume of oil and cargo "suspended" in the world's oceans at millions of tons. It got to the point that there came days and weeks when not a single ship with oil crossed the Atlantic Ocean, and the trade in mineral fuels between Europe and America practically stopped.
Oil today has practically no place to store it, but the exporting countries Venezuela, Qatar, Iraq, Russia, the United States are at their peak production and continue to pump hydrocarbon resources at their maximum. Dumping from Saudi Arabia is especially going on. At the same time, all players in the world oil market are well aware that the period of low prices for "blood of the earth" will soon end. At the same time, scientists adhering to the first version of the origin of "black gold" calculated that with such active world oil production, it will last for a maximum of 50 years only in the largest exporting countries, and the natural resource will be completely depleted. Paradoxically, it turns out that the price falls for a very scarce commodity in the near future.
Oil contains a huge amount of organic chemical compounds. The possibilities of this hydrocarbon are endless. This is a unique raw material with dielectric capabilities, from which all objects around people, from furniture and hygiene products to electronics and semiconductors for space stations, are practically created, and in the coming decades will be created. So which of the versions of the scarce or deficit-free origin of "earthly oil" will win? As they say - wait and see.