You are correct. Endangered species protection didn’t mean shit at the time. Easy to access whales near shore were nearly wiped out, and whalers pursued deeper international waters for “supply”. For more information on this, I highly recommend the book, “1000 barrels a second” by Peter Tertzakian, the executive director of Arc Energy. The book is a bit dated (pre fracking revolution), but very good. By pure luck in timing, and the increasing cost of pursuing whales as they were thinned out, economic oil production saved the day for our whales.
Interestingly, the exact same story has played out in oil. Easy to access conventional fields in politically stable countries was first drained, then producers had to go further and deeper offshore, and into politically unstable countries for supply.
Once again a “magic bullet” of technological development saved the day. Fracking replenished stable supplies and pushed a supply shortage out significantly, buying us some time to transition to cleaner energy. It is important to not squander this time that we were once again lucky to come into at the right time or we could face a massive economic disruption as large fracking fields like the Permian are drained over the next 15-30 years.
We can only get lucky so many times.
I’ve worked in energy trading (oil, gas, power) my whole career. If anyone has any questions on commodities trading, risk, business development, or quantitative analysis in the commodities trading field, feel free to reach out.
Interestingly, the exact same story has played out in oil. Easy to access conventional fields in politically stable countries was first drained, then producers had to go further and deeper offshore, and into politically unstable countries for supply.
Once again a “magic bullet” of technological development saved the day. Fracking replenished stable supplies and pushed a supply shortage out significantly, buying us some time to transition to cleaner energy. It is important to not squander this time that we were once again lucky to come into at the right time or we could face a massive economic disruption as large fracking fields like the Permian are drained over the next 15-30 years.
We can only get lucky so many times.
I’ve worked in energy trading (oil, gas, power) my whole career. If anyone has any questions on commodities trading, risk, business development, or quantitative analysis in the commodities trading field, feel free to reach out.