[maxander]

Oil drilling is one of the most technologically advanced industries that exist, if not the most, and the existence of such technology is predicated (currently) upon the existence of globally-available cheap energy. Non-oil-based development would likely hit a ceiling where there just isn't enough energy to progress long before you could recreate such an elaborate system.

[atemerev]

We only burn oil for energy because it is dirt cheap (yes, thanks to the economy of scale). Electricity can be produced by many other ways if oil becomes too expensive for that.