This past year has seen many great changes in the world of economics. Some of them good – some of them bad! We have seen the price of crude oil go from $147.00 per/barrel down to $33.00 per/barrel and everything in-between with prices settling in the $70′s on an average.

Call for an Oil Change

Across the nation, people have been calling for change in the oil industry: “We need to replace oil with alternative energy resources”, “we need to create renewable energy”, “we need to replace our dependency on foreign oil with something better, cheaper and renewable”.

Each call for change is a good thing. However, the call for change of drilling and pumping and processing crude all doesn’t always take into account all the other products that are created from our use of petroleum. We need to understand that oil based products are entrenched in the core of our society. Products like: golf balls, make-up,deoderant, lipstick, DVD’s, HDTV’s, even toilet seats, and thousands of other products including artificial limbs.

Only 19.4 gallons of gasoline are made from every 42 gallon barrel of crude oil. Everyday we use hundreds of products made with petroleum – see short list: Sample list of Petroleum based products. Out of the 6000+ products out there – can you think of any more?

Impact of Oil Industry on our Society

There are many different ways the oil industry has been hit by the recession, and many of them one might not readily recognize. Did you know how many consumer products are actually manufactured from oil based products? Take tooth paste, soaps, lipstick, sports articles and many textile fabrics, just to mention a few. So if fewer sports articles are sold, the demand for production will diminish, which in turn affects how many people are employed both in production and retail. While a retail sales clerk at a sports store may not seem directly impacted by the recession in the oil industry, he in fact may just have lost his job because of it.

As in any recession, not any one facet can be seem independently from another. How, one might ask, can the loss of sales in the winter sport industry possibly have negative consequences for the oil industry? Think about it: Skis are made from oil based raw material. Fewer skis are purchased, because not as many people can afford their winter vacation. Not only are those at the manufacturing plant affected, but so are, once again, the sales clerk in the sport article industry; and really anybody to do with winter sports: the hotel concierge, the snow plow driver, the laundry service providing clean linen for hotel guests. Fewer customers all around equate to reduced purchasing power all the way around, coupled with unemployment mixes into an almost disastrous cocktail to deepen the recession.

Petroleum products changed our society

It is hard to believe that one product can be so firmly entrenched in the fabric of our economy. No matter how much there needs to be change – it will not happen overnight. Our dependence on oil based products runs too deep. So when we look at what needs to be down to create change, we must look at all the areas that will also need to change, and all the products that will have to be made with alternative solutions. Perhaps that fact alone will create the new job market that will be needed to make it a reality.

Until that day, one company is striving to work within the oil industry and help keep costs of maintenance and repair down so that the cost of oil production will also remain lower – “Miller Oil Field Equipment, Supply & Repair”. Their 45,000 sq.ft warehouse and over 3000 products keep the oil drilling equipment running smoothly and efficiently, thus keeping costs to a minimum. And that is good news for all consumers.

Resources: If you would like to know more about the oil field industry, you can read more articles by Jaron Miller of Miller Oil Field Equipment and Repair. They have thousands of products available to service you.