merican military analyst even suggests that one day the United States and Europe might be in conflict over dwindling Middle East oil supplies.
The analyst, Major Chris Jeffries, Assistant Professor at the US Air Force Academy wrote: "Is it unthinkable that the US might enter into an agreement with the Middle East to secure its supply over the interests of the other industrialized nations - including Europe?"
The intervention by the United States and its allies over Kuwait in 1991 was in large part motivated by a need to secure oil and also to prevent Saddam Hussein from expanding his access to it.
And, although the more recent war with Iraq had other motives as well, oil was a factor as the US Vice President Dick Cheney, warning of Iraq's ambitions, said in August 2002: "Saddam Hussein could then be expected to seek domination of the entire Middle East [and] take control of a great proportion of the world's energy supplies..."
But oil does not just produce outside intervention. It can produce internal abuse of power.
Will Baku see another oil boom?
Saddam Hussein himself is a prime example: it was oil that gave him the resources with which to arm himself.
Looking ahead, new areas of interest are opening up, especially the Caspian Sea where a new "Great Game" is developing to mirror the rivalry between Russia and Great Britain in Asia in the 19th Century.
One of the countries at the heart of Caspian Sea development is Azerbaijan and it is instructive perhaps to recall that its capital, Baku, was once the capital of the world's oil exports.
That was back in the early 20th Century. Baku became an international city, with grand villas built by locals who had got rich and foreigners who came to get rich. The city even put up an ornate opera house to mark its prestige.
The new black gold
Baku's oil was a target for the German army in World War I and the city was briefly occupied by a British contingent. It was then taken by the Soviets, equally keen on getting at the black gold.
Hitler aimed for it again in World War II and predicted that if Germany did not get oil from the Caucus Mountains it would lose the war.
Looking even further ahead to when the oil runs out or at least significantly runs down, it may be that the world turns again to nuclear power.
In which case those countries with uranium deposits would become among the most attractive. The top ten are: Australia, Kazakhstan, Canada, South Africa, Namibia, Brazil, Russia, USA, Uzbekistan and China.