The energy chapter of the economic report makes the following statement, almost casually:
“Although oil prices have risen to more than $60 a barrel in recent months, they have averaged as low as $25 per barrel within the last five years. Having experienced past volatility in oil prices, oil companies report using a working assumption of $15-$30 per barrel for the future price of oil when making long-term investment planning decisions.”
A lot of keen and intelligent observers of the Hydrocarbons scene in the world must be surprised in the light of such observation. However, if viewed in the fond hopes of the U.S.A. to find the alternative of the fossil oil in the form of hydrogen energy, such expectations are not sheer imaginary ones.
Like internet, which was used by the U.S. initially for the benefit of the armed forces but later changed the course of the world when introduced to the public, the hydrogen energy about which the U.S. is experimenting in its armed forces, the days are not far away when the hydrogen energy would be introduced to the oil users in the world as a substitute of petroleum products. Wide use of the hydrogen energy would also eventually lead to a windfall in the form of water. And ther is plenty of untapped hydrogen in the air.
In such a scenario, the political equations too would alter in the volatile Middle East where the centre of power was in the hands of Egypt till Anwar Sadat was at the helm of affairs but with the dependence on oil for energy purposes, the power gravitated to other countries gradually in particular since the advent of hawk politics in Iran, led by Ayatullah Khomeini in Iran. With the weakening of the oil grip, to the satisfaction of the U.S. in the unipolar world, the power is likely to be shifted to the comparatively moderate Egypt.
Source
