Crude oil, a thing of the past?

[Richard Akindele]

Some years ago, I wrote and article about the effect of uncontrolled rising prices of crude oil.

OPEC is a monopoly. Therefore, it can set any price for crude oil, and be sure that the world will pay it.

Yes, the world will pay it, for a short while. But only for a short while. Take for example a person who suddenly develops body ache. That person will endure that pain for a short while. However, meanwhile, he will be looking around for a remedy to his body ache. Now apply that example to the price of oil today. Crude oil is a commodity that everybody in the world pays for. It doesn't matter if you're young, old, male, female, poor, rich, the high price of oil affects you.

With such an important commodity, when price rises, it has a far-reaching ripple effect globally. Anything that affects the world that much is bound to spark an effort for a solution. As it turns out, the rise in crude oil prices is doing just that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-A3XHFT5qc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dq8aZVLpf-c&NR=1

The above youtube links show a new effort toward building cars that run on pure compressed air. Yes, compressed air! This solves two problems in the world. First, it reduces the cost of running a car. Second, it solves the problem of pollution in cities around the world. This is a win-win situation.

What does this all mean? It means that crude oil is about to become less relevant. If the compressed air technology becomes reality, the price of crude oil would drop like a rock. Nigeria being an oil producing country would be adversely affected, since our primary source of income is the export of crude oil.

Is there anything Nigeria could do to keep from getting hit by this loss of income? Yes, there's a lot we could do. We could enforce the law to keep thieves in government from stealing out resources, which we all know end up in foreign nations where it benefits none of us as Nigerians.

The resources rescued from these thieves can then be used to better stabilize things like electricity, health care, roads, etc. Finally, we must invest in scientific research make use of our incredible brains.

This compressed air technology is just a small piece of the puzzle. Other efforts are in the works too countervailing to the sale of crude oil.

Nigeria needs to follow my advice now, or we would see our main source of income dry up in just a few decades.