Geology, potentiality, speculation: on the indeterminacy of "first oil"

Weszkalnys, Gisa ORCID: 0009-0006-4447-121X (2015) Geology, potentiality, speculation: on the indeterminacy of "first oil". Cultural Anthropology, 30 (4). pp. 611-639. ISSN 1548-1360

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Abstract

This article uses what the petroleum industry calls “first oil” to examine the uneven process of resource making on the margins of global zones of extraction. It explores how the double obscurity of hydrocarbon prospects—both geologically obscured and their worth not yet revealed by the market—generates particular material constraints, pauses, and setbacks characteristic of petroleum production. The article draws on ethnographic and archival material from São Tomé and Príncipe (STP) where repeated attempts to explore offshore oil have yet to transform geological potential into an economic asset. It highlights the incongruous effects of certain epistemic practices and devices (contract, zone, and well) aimed at facilitating first oil by managing uncertainty. As a result, they work as gestures of an indeterminate matter whose existence has continued to be doubted.

Item Type:	Article
Official URL:	https://anthrosource.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journ...
Additional Information:	© 2015 American Anthropological Association
Divisions:	Anthropology
Subjects:	G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GN Anthropology Q Science > QE Geology
Date Deposited:	13 Aug 2015 10:37
Last Modified:	12 Dec 2024 00:55
Funders:	British Academy, John Fell Research Fund, Leverhulme Research Fellowship
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/63141

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