agree and am responding to everything you've said atul, i just don't want to quote it because it is so long
there is a sociologist here at my university studying the history of oil use. others have done the same, such as Timothy Mitchell from your side of the pond.
the most interesting thing is the degree to which early oil and automobile companies had to _create_ an oil economy, it was by no means the natural or even the best choice, it was simply the most profitable one. Electric automobiles and cars were actually the norm as the auto was being invented in the late 19th century. it was only due to collaborative efforts between oil and auto that killed the electric car and created the gas powered ones.
it gets deeper than that even. some historians recount the degree to which oil and auto then had a strong influence on the creation of our modern period's infrastructure in america; the creation of streets and suburbs over rail and public transportation. all moves designed to create a dependency on oil and the auto.
in the late 20th century, further efforts to create electric cars were then, literally, shredded by oil and auto.