How is it with us, humans, that we are mostly motivated and inspired by lack of something? Why can’t we think and act upon something in advance, in the luxury of plenty?

What made me think about this topic was a book about ancient China by Steve Berry. I did not know that the Chinese culture has been using crude oil since 2200 BC and that they are so dependent on it right now. As I understood - if they would not be able to purchase the outstanding amount anywhere on the world, their country would be totally paralyzed in just 2 weeks! Obviously, they search for alternative sources. The search is not necessarily for sources alternative to gas, but rather about the whole concept of gas as we know it today.

The first idea about the origin of oil came form a Russian scientist, Mikhail Lomonosov (1711-1765), who came up with the theory of organic nature of oil. Since then majority of people, since we are taught that at schools, believe that our oil comes from decayed bodies of dinosaurs and plants. But recent scientific research proves that it is not right.

Long time before WWII Chinese, Russian and American scientists were working independently on the idea of inorganic nature of oil. That oil is produced independently inside of our planet as a result of high pressure and high temperature, which melts materials such as marble, some gases etc. According to this theory there is (potentially) an endless supply of oil in our planet. The main problem here is that this type of oil can only be found in extreme depth of the crust of our planet. We are talking about kilometres inside the crust (a few thousands miles).

If so, then we have two aspects of this problem: one is the locations of places where the penetration to the surface of inorganic oil takes place, second – in case there is not enough of those places, what the cost of drilling would be. The only fact we know right now is that the crude oil from Mexican Gulf disappears incomparably slower then anywhere else on the planet. It rises the concept that it can be the due to infiltration of inorganic oil. I personally found it extremely interesting. Maybe some of you know more about this research, then please contact me. I would love to know more!

Most interesting from our, human nature, point of view is that whatever we have, and regardless of the amount and nature of those things, we still have a tendency of thinking about lack. What will happen if we will not have it anymore? What will happen if it will be taken away from us? The fear of lack is our main motivation. If so, what will happen when we will learn that there is enough and we will never be lacking oil? Will we stop progressing in our search for alternative fuels? Even though we know that the dilemma of plenty vs. lack is not the reason for the general public being not aware of research regarding oil, it makes me ponder about our future