Eli5 Why does the Middle East have such an abundance of oil and natural gas?
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Fossil fuels require pretty specific conditions to form. Essentially, you need a very rich organic layer (dead plants and animals, though much of the oil comes from plankton in the ocean) that gets buried so that it’s not exposed to much oxygen, and it has to be buried such that the organic layer is exposed to temperatures and pressures that allow the organic material to transform into oil and natural gas.
The answer might be a little unsatisfying, but it’s just that the Middle East experienced those conditions at the appropriate time. That region used to be an ocean, but over time turned to land.
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