Extreme Oil

It's in our clothes, our laundry detergent, our toothpaste, cosmetics, furniture, contact lenses and office supplies. It's in our telephones, CDs, tennis rackets, painkillers and plastic. Oil doesn't just fuel our cars - it fuels modern life. Continuing instability in the Middle East means a shaky future for the steady flow of oil on which Americans depend so heavily. Factor in Western nations' insatiable power needs and the energy demands of huge, growing economies like China's, when the world's reserves of easily accessible "black gold" are already strained, and the oil industry finds itself forced to enter uncharted terrain. Where will tomorrow's oil come from? And how far are we willing to go to get it?

EXTREME OIL, premiering on PBS Mondays, September 13-27, 2004, looks at extremes to which the oil industry has to go to find new sources of the asset that drives the world's economy and fuels so many aspects of modern life. The series examines the difficulties of balancing the quest for new energy resources with security risks, environmental safety and the ethics of disrupting lives while tapping into tomorrow's reserves. From the construction of a massive pipeline that flows through some of the most unstable corners of the world to the debate over the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) and the new oil boom in Africa, the three-part EXTREME OIL is a voyage of discovery through the world's newest oil-producing regions.

"Right now, the global oil industry is caught between a rock and a hard place. We all want oil, but we don't always like how we get oil," said Stephen Segaller, executive producer of the series. "EXTREME OIL is not a critique of the oil industry - it's an objective look at this dilemma in context around the world, and a realistic portrait of the pressures that comprise the coming oil crisis. The film underscores just how vital it is to understand the different potential solutions and the risks and trade-offs of each one."

In episode one, "The Pipeline," viewers shadow filmmakers as they follow the circuitous route of the 1,100-mile "BTC Pipeline," a string of 150,000 steel pipes that links the cities of Baku in Azerbaijan, Tbilisi in Georgia and Ceyhan in Turkey, transporting the rich, previously untapped energy reserves of the Caspian to the Mediterranean, from where it flows into the global market. As they trace the oil's journey - from where it lies underground to where it becomes accessible to its end-users - the filmmakers encounter numerous stumbling blocks - including their arrest in Azerbaijan - as they make their way through some of the most geographically challenging and politically unsafe places on earth.

In episode two, "The Oil Curse," the production team travels down jungle rivers to the coastline of Ecuador, a nation where the presence of oil has proven to be more a bane than a blessing and is now the focus of a landmark lawsuit over international corporate accountability. Then, it's on to western Africa, where an oil boom in Angola is poised to combat the "oil curse." Can the oil industry ensure that a potential $200 billion jackpot will reach and benefit the people of Angola themselves? Some oil companies have embraced a new ethical and political approach to business, insisting that health and education development projects are created hand-in-hand with the efforts to extract the oil from developing countries. In Angola, the production team observes the efforts firsthand.

Wrapping up the series is episode three, "The Wilderness" (w.t.), in which EXTREME OIL heads to the far reaches of Alaska and Canada - with a side trip to Washington, DC. Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) could soon be the site of extensive oil development - but at what cost? In Washington, those lobbying for and against tapping into ANWR's oil supply state their cases. In Alaska, too, there are passionate advocates both for and against drilling in ANWR, and the issue even divides the region's indigenous populations. In Alberta, the crew heads to a pristine forest landscape - perhaps a model for the ANWAR project - that has become the extraction site of what some call "the world's worst oil."

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