WI Middle East without Oil

So what if instead beeing located in the ME - all the oil there would have been present in Africa, Europe or China?

PS: I openend this in the After 1900 section because Oil wasnt really used much untill after 1900 - at least according to what I know.
 
The thread ought to be placed in the ASB forum since having a earth naturally form without there being oil in that region would mean that humans as well as their history would be reformed as well.

And IIRC the oil in the ME is pretty obvious to find.
 

Delta Force

Banned
The thread ought to be placed in the ASB forum since having a earth naturally form without there being oil in that region would mean that humans as well as their history would be reformed as well.

And IIRC the oil in the ME is pretty obvious to find.

It is not really that ASB, as the oil can still form but just not be trapped in the proper rock structure or end up becoming another hydrocarbon product like natural gas or coal. The vast majority of hydrocarbons ever present on Earth failed to be trapped by the right rock structure and out of the remainder most went on to become natural gas or coal.

You could really look at several options with this. The Middle East could end up having vast natural gas fields, in which case they become wealthy nations starting in the 1970s and natural gas becomes a big export globally. You could also have a coal rich Middle East, which would most likely end up like the resource rich nations of Africa that remain undeveloped due to lack of infrastructure and a trained labor force (coal is much harder to transport than oil and gas, especially through desert plains without rivers that other regions use to move bulk goods). Another option is that the Middle East gets nothing at all, in which case it would probably remain sparsely populated and nomadic outside of select areas like the Tigris and Euphrates River valley and pearl and fishing villages in Qatar and the UAE (if the UAE ever forms without oil).
 
It is not really that ASB, as the oil can still form but just not be trapped in the proper rock structure or end up becoming another hydrocarbon product like natural gas or coal. The vast majority of hydrocarbons ever present on Earth failed to be trapped by the right rock structure and out of the remainder most went on to become natural gas or coal.

You could really look at several options with this. The Middle East could end up having vast natural gas fields, in which case they become wealthy nations starting in the 1970s and natural gas becomes a big export globally. You could also have a coal rich Middle East, which would most likely end up like the resource rich nations of Africa that remain undeveloped due to lack of infrastructure and a trained labor force (coal is much harder to transport than oil and gas, especially through desert plains without rivers that other regions use to move bulk goods). Another option is that the Middle East gets nothing at all, in which case it would probably remain sparsely populated and nomadic outside of select areas like the Tigris and Euphrates River valley and pearl and fishing villages in Qatar and the UAE (if the UAE ever forms without oil).

The POD for this would be many thousands, may be millions of years ago however.
 
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