The long shadow cast by British Petroleum's 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, perhaps the largest environmental disaster wrought by the petroleum industry to date, brings into question the calculation of costs against gains earned from offshore oil and gas drilling. Truthfully, however, the question is moot. Today's industrial nations depend on oil. The inevitable shift of balance away from fossil fuels toward renewables is likely decades away. In the interim, fossil fuels will remain an important part of the energy mix driving global development.