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Re:With oil cheap, Arab states cannot balance their books by dingoegret on Tuesday July 21, 2020 @01:33PM (#23908875)
Even renewables need tons of fossil to lubricate moving parts. Generators in a turbine alone is a massive oil guzzler. The world will always need oil until a synthetic lubricant that isn't insanely cost prohibitive.
Re:With oil cheap, Arab states cannot balance their books by bluGill on Tuesday July 21, 2020 @02:42PM (#23909565)
We know how to make lubrication oil from other sources. Natural gas is a molecule easy to make from organic sources, and from there we already have the industrial processes to may synthetic oil. It costs a lot more than regular oil, and making your own natural gas drives up the cost, but it isn't impossible. Note that we can also make synthetic gasoline, last I checked (long ago, gasoline was $1.30/gallon) you could buy drums for about $8/gallon, the only people who paid that price were on a track and good enough that a better fuel was the difference between win and loss.
Re:With oil cheap, Arab states cannot balance their books by travisporter on Tuesday July 21, 2020 @01:51PM (#23909069)
Yes, but the amount surely matters. If machines or car only require oil for lubrication, for example, that's probably one or two orders of magnitude less of oil needed.