"The industrialized world's unprecedented economic growth during the last 100 years has been based in large part on increasing availability of cheap petroleum." (Professor Craig Bond Hatfield, 1997. See "Notes" below.)

* * *

"Petra: upon thee I will build my church." Saint Matthew, quoting our LORD.

1 Thank you Glorious ELOHIM for Day Three of Creation and the massive carbonate reservoirs charged with light, sweet crude oil that we subject to depletion. (We know Thou takest away as well as givest.)


2 Thanks Merciful JEHOVAH for the Prudhoe Bays and Cantarells defunct; the Thunderhorses and Qatifs of the moment; the Kirkuks, East Baghdads, and Rumalias to come. (Not to mention underground rivers of tar immobilized by Albertan ice.)

3 Praise Be to GOD for 3-D seismic X-ray vision of the greasy flanks of Ghawar the Great, permitting freer access to her hidden resources, thus goosing the world economy;

4 And for horizontal drill bores and accessory attachments with which to better probe her deepest recesses and suction her marrowbones for the jet fuels that carry us to concrete-reinforced native Pacific vacation colonies;