Oil has provided humanity with many benefits, including affordable energy to reduce our workloads and improve our mobility. Because oil is such an important and visible part of our daily lives, and because it is exceptionally open to political manipulations, it often receives an enormous amount of attention. This is especially true whenever its price increases sharply, and experts immediately get to work to diagnose the cause and consequences of the price increase. In fact, the future of oil is not that much different from its past: undoubtedly, oil production and consumption will become cleaner and more efficient, but prices will continue to be volatile, and the oil industry will continue to be blamed for conflicts, corruption, and pollution. And for all the current talk about the end of the oil age, it will remain a vital source of energy as it is now, nearly a century after the first warnings about soaring consumption and limited resources.