This essay illustrates how petroleum, the oil industry, and oil corporations manifest and are manifested across publicly visible and accessible platforms, or visual opportunity spaces, in promotion, conflict, consumption, and warning. The product, industry operations, and brand name corporations are represented as essential entities, benevolent neighbours, educators, or entertainment providers; as problematic or disruptive; or as hazardous. Yet when comparing everyday observations, corporate-sponsored images of goodwill are not equally countered by images of resistance or government-mandated public health warnings. Positive images blanket public opportunity spaces in ways that lead to the normalisation of the industry’s presence and of the consumption and production of petroleum, while critical or cautious visual narratives are minimised to sporadic or event-based protest activities or minuscule and routinised warnings. A comparative analysis sheds light on the imbalance of visual indicators of promotion, criticism, and vigilance. Oil corporations or the industry dominate and are permitted to dominate access to visual spaces in volume, duration, and positive or gratifying sensations that are not equally countered by civil society’s challenges or concerns, or by notices of climate change or human or ecological health risks.

这篇文章说明了石油、石油工业和石油公司如何在促销、冲突、消费和警告中通过公开可见和可访问的平台或视觉机会空间表现出来。产品、行业运营和品牌公司代表重要实体、仁慈的邻居、教育工作者或娱乐提供者；有问题或具有破坏​​性；或危险。然而，在比较日常观察时，企业赞助的善意形象并没有被抵抗形象或政府强制的公共卫生警告所抵消。正面形象以导致行业存在以及石油消费和生产正常化的方式覆盖公共机会空间，而批评或谨慎的视觉叙事被最小化为零星的或基于事件的抗议活动或微小和常规的警告。比较分析揭示了促进、批评和警惕的视觉指标的不平衡。石油公司或工业在体积、持续时间和积极或令人满意的感觉方面占据主导地位，并被允许主导进入视觉空间的途径，而民间社会的挑战或担忧、气候变化或人类或生态健康风险的通知并没有同样地抵消这些感受。