For more than a century, the oil and gas industry has played a central role in almost every geopolitical development of consequence. Now that the fossil fuels’ days finally seem to be numbered, it is time to consider not just what will come next, but also what it will take to get there. MILAN – Pessimism has pervaded the oil industry ever since its inception in 1859, when the small town of Titusville, Pennsylvania, became the site of the first oil rush. To many observers at the time, the “black gold” was a gift from Mother Nature that would surely be exhausted once discovered by others. In 1885, Pennsylvania’s official state geologist warned that, “The amazing exhibition of oil” would be merely a “temporary and vanishing phenomenon – one which young men will live to see come to its natural end.” Since then, there has been perennial speculation about […]