Elegant and astounding as the engineering of the modern onshore wind turbine is, it is likely — as was remarked at an oil conference in Norway last month — that we will look back on it “as the nodding donkey” of the sector in years to come.

The petroleum industry grew from badland forests of oil derricks into a vast network of steel and concrete infrastructure stretched across the world’s seabed and then into a fleet of more than 300 floating vessels producing in every major maritime region in the world.