The Fight for Black Gold

We still swim in energy, turning night into day. Oil is the engine of our civilisation, a synonym for our era. Without "black gold", our economy, transport, medicine and agriculture would collapse. But how much of this coveted raw material is still left in the ground? For more than a hundred years, methods for discovering new oil deposits have been refined. Yet geologists remain far from able to predict with certainty where this precious energy source lies hidden underground. Developing new oil fields has become a multi-billion-euro investment: on average, ten years pass between the start of the search and the moment the first drop flows.

The documentary is a journey to research laboratories and drilling projects around the world, each recounting the difficulty of getting hold of this precious resource. It also shows the methods now used to drill for oil in places previously out of reach — with uncertain success and high risk, as became clear well before the "Deepwater Horizon" rig disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.