Looking into the future maybe they’ll finally realize that the process of making oil is right in front of their eyes, it’s called the ocean and it’s churning it out daily. the real discovery will be when we’re able to duplicate that process at a level to become feasable.
It occurred to me that innovations in usage of oil and gas energy and storage of the produced energy might be the real breakthroughs of the not too distant future. But I can’t see humanity ignoring all of that readily available fuel just sitting there under our feet. That is not a path that will be taken.