Origins of fuel in the GFFA

[FTeik]

Origins of fuel in the GFFA.

Looking at the source-material for StarWars - both Legends and Nu Canon - we learn, that energy in the GFFA is generated using a multitude of fuel-sources: radioactive gases, liquid metals, fission reactors and hypermatter just to name a few.

If we now look at the real world, we’ll see, that a large number of conflicts have been fought over oil and that the companies that extracted, refined and sold oil became some of the largest and influential companies in the world, so much, that a lot of policy-making is concentrated around getting control and access of it (hello gulf-wars).

Yet in StarWars, where we have several stories about rare ores or crystals unique to a single planet, fuel doesn’t seem to be a large issue.. The only instances where we hear about fuel are Wedge Antilles family, who owned a fueling depot, activities of the Rebel-Alliance trying to steal fuel from Imperial depots and convoys or collect enough money to buy fuel somewhere or an episode of Rebels, where the crew of the Ghost steals a few containers of fuel (which must have an incredible energy-density, if the few containers we saw can supply the entire Phoenix-cell) from the Mining Guild.

So why is there no conflict over the control and access to the sources of fuel, especially hypermatter? Why do we hear of large shipbuilding-corporations, droid-builders, speeder-producers, fast-food-chains, but not the SW-equivalent of Saudi-Aramco, Exxon or British Petroleum? Is there a hypermatter-cartel (like OPEC in our world), but nobody bothers to annoy them, since they are in a similar position of power as the BoSS ( Bureau of Ships and Services)?

[NecronLord]

The Mining Guild. So powerful that Leia thinks at the actual ESB height of the Empire, it can keep the Empire out of Bespin.

They are shown in Rebels to produce/extract fuel.

[Darth Tanner]

The clone wars had the entire battle for Malastare being over its fuel reserve, it was one of the largest ground battled depicted in the Clone Wars and was important enough to have multiple Jedi councel members and Palpatine present to get a treaty signed for access to the fuel.

[Adam Reynolds]

The fact that fuel is rarely if ever a plot point tells you something about it, that it likely isn't very expensive in most cases. Even though I had previously argued the opposite, as an explanation for the low observed fleet numbers, there really isn't much evidence in favor of this position. Though it is more likely that the fuel that is really valuable is something like tibanna gas, used in blasters in some fashion. This is also consistent with Malastare being as important as it was during the Clone Wars.

While the mining guild is stated to be important, we don't exactly know what they are involved in. Their primary commodity might be rare resources rather than fuel directly. We do know that they presumably have a monopoly in a similar fashion to OPEC given Leia and Lando's comments. Though in the era of the prequels, it is possible that most major companies in Star Wars have strong integration of other relevant industries. The Trade Federation might outright own their fuel production, given that we do know they produce their own warships and droids. Which would also again explain why Malastare is important. With several major companies leaving the Republic, control of mines has passed along with them to some extent, making those that remain within the Republic or that are neutral that much more valuable.

In any case, fuel that is a conventional liquid cannot possibly be used as the sole source of energy in the same sense as petroleum products today because it lacks the necessary energy density. It must be processed in some exotic fashion that stores the fuel in hyperspace(thus the term hypermatter), actually violating E=mc^2.

[Galvatron]

The Mining Guild. So powerful that Leia thinks at the actual ESB height of the Empire, it can keep the Empire out of Bespin.

Reminds me of Dune. Although the Padishah Emperor rules the universe, there are still powerful organizations that have a great deal of autonomy (e.g. CHOAM and the Spacing Guild).

It's possible the Death Star was also meant to subjugate economic superpowers like them as well. After all, in their deleted scene on Tatooine, Biggs told Luke that the Empire was starting to nationalize commerce in the central systems.

[NecronLord]

Especially as building up central power required the Emperor to manufacture a war (and a taxation dispute before that?) on economic superpowers.