subject: Origins Of Oil And Its Future [print this page] Plants and animals died millions of years ago get buried beneath tones of porous rock and over the millennia crude oil is created. For crude oil to be found, there has to exist a series of steps for its creation. First of all the plants and animals all have to have died roughly about the same time - possibly about 4pm in the afternoon. Just kidding!
Making sure you were paying attention! The animals have to had died within the same time period and then the mud that forms on top of them must become porous and hold in all the gasses and oils. Specific isn't it?
Only by drilling and using the pressure inherent under the porous rock will the crude oil be forced out - that geyser we are all familiar with. If the pressure fails a subsequent well can be drilled and water fed in re-pressurising the oil out again.
It is also a flammable substance as it is a mixture of hydrocarbons, nitrogen, oxygen, sulfur and other chemicals. Upon refining crude oil it is used for a vast amount of things in modern living, plastics, paints, dyes, detergents, bags, gasoline, etc. the list is nearly endless. Everything relies on it - even our food production.
The biggest crude oil producers are; United States, Mexico, Iran, Nigeria, China, Brazil, Venezuela, Kuwait and famously Saudi Arabia. As you can see from this list, not all countries have the capability to produce oil, yet all countries consume it and this increases demand and pushes prices higher. Oil is also a finite commodity, in other words - it will run out. Having said that, PetroBras from Brazil has just found what promises to be a very important find and it looks like that will keep many thousands of people employed for the next 20 years or so. There are rumors it could outweigh anything found recently in Saudi Arabia or Kuwait. A most substantial find.
We all have to do our bit and keep purchasing products that DO NOT rely on the wastage of crude oil. We can try to buy food produce that was grown locally, so there is very little oil and petrol wastage on transport. Don't buy beans from South Africa if you live in London! It's just unnecessary wastage and we should all look at consuming things that are in season. Another thing we can do is to refuse plastic bags, take your own non plastic bag out for the shopping. They are a menace in so many ways, from taking thousands of years to decompose to endangering sea wildlife like turtles, who mistakenly eat them assuming they are jelly fish. Try to take electric trains and use public transport where possible we can stop the unwanted flow of the Earth's valuable blood.
Governments and Scientists are looking at alternative forms of producing energy to avoid a future energy crisis. Currently, oils can be refined in many ways, usually though they are either light and flammable or heavy and dark. Most of all the oils are toxic to the environment, animal life and human life although in varying degrees of toxicity. Gasses given off from the burning of oils can also hurt the environment.
It is, as we stated earlier, a finite source of energy and other products so until we can substitute with something else we are stuck with it. Some people love it - some loathe it, but without it we most certainly wouldn't have made all the technological advances we have done these past 100 years.
For more information on oil classification please visit this link:
