Sustainable Petroleum Engineering

We are facing a crisis that threatens the sustainability of the entire planet. Civilisation has been defined up to now by how efficiently we handle our energy needs. The focus on short-term and tangibles obscures the true vision of technology users. Perpetual justifications of progressively less efficient technologies as panaceas has become a rampant source of the profoundest disinformation. No sector has fallen bigger victim to this disinformation campaign than the petroleum industry. Today, the most efficient naturally processed fuel (fossil fuel) production is synonymous with unsustainability and compatibility with nature and the environment. Accompanying this slogan is the environmentalists'' drumbeat about "renewable" energy. Everywhere people are sold on the idea that even genetically altered vegetable oil is sustainable and efficient whereas natural crude oil exploitation is not. With this slogan, it has become fashionable to replace the agricultural industry with "renewable" energy production and try to replace fossil fuel energy with nuclear energy. The industry that single-handedly served mankind a globalisation panacea on a silver platter has now become a villain worthy of being replaced with the makers of nuclear bombs and DDT. Similarly, carbon dioxide -- the essence of life and energy, through photosynthesis -- has become the other villain that must be "sequestered" and possibly replaced by hydrogen and even radioactive nuclear spent fuel.