The House that Hydrocarbons Built

I’ve got a confession. I fly. Quite a lot.

And still, every time I get onto one of those big birds, without fail, I can’t help but marvel at how we’ve devised this tool that gets us anywhere in the world in less than 24 hours. It’s not quite teleportation, but it’s damn close.

Plenty has conspired to enable this wizardry: the science of aerodynamics, armies of engineers, capital markets, supply chains, bloody-minded and bloody trial and error.

But there’s one component that underpins all the rest. And indeed underpins everything we busy, ambitious, suited and booted monkeys do: energy.

There’s the energy that forged the steel in the plane’s body and engine. The energy that transported thousands of parts to the Boeing assembly factory. The energy in the jet fuel that somehow gets the entire thing off the ground and you on your way to that lads weekend in Prague.

Our modern energy system is a gargantuan, sprawling, mind boggling miracle. It spans the four corners and the deepest depths. It’s an interminable web of pipes, platforms, pumps. Tankers, truck, and turbines. It employs 32 million, from roughnecks in Texas, to sheikhs in Riyadh, to suits in London (I would know, I was one of them).

Watts, barrels, and Btus make the world go round. There’s almost nothing in your environment right now that hasn’t been made possible by today’s hydrocarbon-based energy system (fossil fuels currently provide ~80% of our total global energy needs).

Your phone runs on electricity and is full of plastics made from petrochemicals. The building you’re sitting in was built with metals and cement that must be made with coal. That avo you ate earlier was grown with the help of gas guzzling machines and transported to a hipster cafe near you via more gas guzzling machines.

The list is never ending, but you get the point: energy is the input to everything. And this means that your quality of life, and that of everyone else on God’s green earth, is directly linked to the availability and affordability of that energy. Energy, as the smart chaps over at Doomberg say, is life.

Read that again. Remember it. Inject it into your veins. It’s the core truth behind Over A Barrel. And it should be taught at schools alongside the ABC.

Allow me to hammer this point home with some hard facts. We like facts. Since the mid 19th century when hydrocarbons unlocked a torrent of abundant, affordable energy, lots of good things have happened:

• In 1850, 87% of the world’s population lived in absolute poverty, today less than 10% do.

• Global average life expectancy has increased from 29 to 71 years since 1850.

• Global average GDP per capita has increased by 13x since 1850.

The world is much better place to live for almost everyone today than it was before hydrocarbons. And not just a little bit better, a lot lot lot better. More energy, better life. Less energy, worse life.

The bizarre thing is though, that despite its life-or-death importance, the energy system is almost invisible to most of us, especially here in Europe. Like a human heart, it’s mission critical to everything we do, but it works so quietly and efficiently in the background that we forget it’s even there. Until something goes wrong, and then it’s all she wrote.

The modern energy system’s greatest achievement, and it’s greatest threat (more on that in a moment), is that it has become so ingrained into everything we do that we take it entirely for granted.

If you’re reading this you probably have a decent knowledge of energy systems but I’d hazard a guess that most of your friends and family don’t. Try asking them what happens behind the plug socket, or where the gas on their stove comes from. “The mains” was as far as my (very intelligent and well read) mum could get.

There can be few industries where we have such a poor understanding of something so important.

And therein lies the problem:

Because we collectively fail to appreciate just how important our energy system is, we find it far too easy to attack it.

Here in Europe, discussions about energy are almost always negative. It’s rising household bills, it’s Middle-Eastern wars, it’s corruption, and of course, it’s the biggest bogey monster of the lot: climate change.

Exxon Mobil is public enemy number one. And while Saint Greta has the ear of presidents and kings, legions of holier-than-thou journalists at the Guardian bash their petrochemical plastic keyboards in indignation at a government which dares to sanction a new North Sea gas field that would provide the very power they need to write their rags.

And as for Greenpeace et al, their opposition to nuclear is a climate catastrophe of epic proportions and what they really want is fewer human beings. But I’ll save that discussion for another day.

No one calls to tear down the health system, or the military, or our schools. That’s because we understand their importance and realize that, although there’s room for improvement, they must be handled with as much care as your terrifying sister-in-laws’ new born baby.

Contrast that with the energy sector, where everyone from Steve down at the pub to powerful global organisations like the UN and the IEA think we shouldn’t be investing anymore into fossil fuels, seemingly ignorant of the human consequences of their advocacy.

“Divest” is so in vogue that I’m surprised it wasn’t invited to the Met Gala. Pragmatism is KIA - drowned by the chorus of single-minded activists who have nothing else to build their identity on. And it’s all a disaster for our economies, our livelihoods, and yes, the environment too.

The thing is, and forgive me for banging on about this, we live in the house that hydrocarbons built. If you don’t like it here, you’re free to leave. Go live off-grid in a commune. Denounce your modern luxuries. But know that it will be dark, cold, and brutal out there. No transport, no heating, no plastics. Home grown food, herbal medicines, and hemp underpants. Good luck. I’d ask you to take some piccies but there’s not much electricity out there. Maybe you could write a journal on the wall of your cave in pig’s blood?

But please, whatever you do, next time you find yourself sympathizing with some wackos in hi-viz vests blocking a road, just think for one second how grudgingly, terribly shit your life, and the lives of those you love, would be without fossil fuels.

If you really think upending the global energy system is a good idea, if you want to demolish this house, then you better be sure you have a viable and immediate replacement. Otherwise, and this is no exaggeration, a lot of people will die. And guess what, the replacement we are blindly chasing is a woefully inferior knock-off.

Sometimes I think this is all a bit too obvious. That no one really believes we could manage without fossil fuels anytime soon. But then I remember that the UN Sec General thinks that fossil fuel companies have “have humanity by the throat” and that Germany’s elected-politicians are driving it’s famous economy into the ground in the name of green ideology, and I realize that this is no straw man.

This idea that we can rapidly transform the energy system to run on wind and solar without awful consequences is as pervasive as it is pernicious. It has caught the imagination of many thanks to big megaphones and bigger pockets - see Al Gore - that have filled the vacuum of belonging left by the demise of faith, family, and community, with a cosy, noble cause of “saving the planet”.

Environmentalism has become a faith, a cult even, complete with its original sin (burning fossil fuels), promised land (100% renewables), and humble prophets (Greta Thunberg). This will be a whole piece in itself - watch this space.

Dare to suggest a more nuanced, pragmatic position and wait for that sharp intake of breath and a flash of orange paint. A partnership with BP is a deal with the devil, and a shareholding in Shell is tantamount to putting a match to the Amazon yourself.

As a result, virtue signalling organisations around the world have distanced themselves from conventional energy companies and jumped on the bandwagon. Universities endowment funds have divested from oil & gas stocks and opera houses have cut sponsorship deals. No matter that they are all happy customers of these companies they shun.

But my favorite example has to be the Church of England, an organisation built on the principle of protecting the poor. Nothing has done more to improve the lives of the world’s poorest than fossil fuels. Yet the church, in its infinite wisdom, has decided that the least fortunate among us can do without hydrocarbons, plastics, fertilizers, and steel, and would be better off with a solar panel and a prayer.

'Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.’ Well, the poor will be in the kingdom of God a lot sooner than planned at this rate.

You might be reading this and thinking that I’m some climate denying oil stooge - it wouldn’t be the first time I’ve been accused of that. But you’d be wrong: I believe in man-made climate change. I believe it’s a big problem that needs fixing. Yes, I spent many fond years in the oil and gas industry but now I work in nature carbon markets.

My 30,000ft view is that we’re going about the “energy transition” all wrong. This great green juggernaut of mainstream thinking in Europe is a slow motion car crash. Fools are behind the wheel and the rest of us are locked in the boot.

So that’s what Over A Barrel is all about. It’s a dive into all things energy and climate, giving a perspective and solutions that you won’t read about in the BBC. And yes, we have the solutions available that will not just maintain our house, but will make it stronger, sustainable, and open to all.

Thanks for reading. I’m going to try to get one of these pieces out every week so, if you liked this, share it with your pals and hit subscribe to get the next one straight into your inbox.

Catch you soon. 🛢️⚡⚛️