How could energy resources cause political conflicts?

I missed the 1st lecture this morning, thanks to my half-conscious mind after spending 2 long hours cleaning toilet bowls and mopping the floor early in the morning! I guess it might take some time for me to re-programme my mind back to 'student mode'. I was introduce to a new module today, EA 1005: Natural Resources & Energy. The lecturer was Dr Peter Brabham, the same man that taught us EA 1013: Geoinformatics (this module is so cool, we play around with loads of computer graphics softwares as well as making maps!).

His 1st lecture was realling enthralling! He briefed us on the importance of understanding 2 main global issues that the world is witnessing nowadays:
1. Global climate change (reports said that nights in the UK now (recorded, about 12.4'C) is warmer than during summer (12'C)!)
2. Wars
Nations that fought over in numbers of battles were driven to do so because of a few known factors. Apart from the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in which I strongly believe to be a fully religious conflict, other wars were caused by the disputes in the world's natural resources. The world's riches. Despite an awful lot of conspiracy theories laid out by the minds of the concerned, I believe that the invasion of Iraq by the bloody American troops we primarily driven by their greed in Iraq's 2nd-world-largest oil reserve! Oh yes, guys, here's some important facts on oil that i guess you should know:
1. God did not distribute oil equally beneath all soils.
2. The region that has the largest oil reserves is around the Persian Gulf
3. Oil is not made of dinasours carcasses, as what it is popularly knowned. It's formed by the mixture of dead tiny-miny planktons and clays that underwent a millions of years of chemical and physical processes

Realising it or not, people just can't live their life happily without energy. I find it hard to live without computers & books. Some of you cant live without Ipods or internet chatting or whatever you name it. How could these things been produced, transported, popularised, marketed without being driven by energy-dependent mediums?There was once a 2 day of hell in the UK when all petrol stations were limited in providing petrol to road users. Loads of them engaged in a fight, some were nearly killed.

So you see, nations all around the world seek resources and energy to survive. Loads of these resources and energy were treasured below our feet. Let the politicians do all the talking, but when it comes to these 'world-rich-resources' issues, the GEOLOGISTS have the final say. Why? because they understand how the earth system works!

I am really energized from the moment I went out of the lecture hall (about 2pm) until now. I read books, surf through the internet, hoping to clear off some doubts about oil and gas. And guys, here's something I thought to be worthwhile sharing with you....

I'm gonna use a UK-version of units..
1 tonne = 1000kg (a measure of weight)
1 gallon = about 4.54 Litres (a measure of volume)
1 barrel (of oil or beer or etc) = can fill about 35 gallons of oil or beer or etc
Now....
in 2004, Malaysia's oil reserves could produce (average) 912,000 gallons a day (i.e. 912,000 gallons of oil were able to be pumped out from all the reserves in 1 day)
Malaysian consumers: 504,000 gallons a day
Exports: 408, 000 gallons a day
Research shows that Malaysia is going to run out of oil, if they dont find new oil reserves, by 2009 (quoted from Najib Tun Razak in one of his press statement)!! That's 2 more years to go!!
The US is the largest consumer of oil (no doubt, just look at their progressive 'worldly' developments) with the rate of usage of 7 million barrels per day! (about 25% of world consumption).

That's how important a geologist is. Also, a wise decision made by a geologist to his/her company, with regards to the possibility of an oil reserve lying beneath the ground of a certain region, could provide him/her a handsome amount of income! Why? A decision couldnt be made easily as the cost of making an 'offshore drilling platform' costs more than $10 million!