Lab 4: Sources & Uses of Petroleum

Key Q: What is oil used for?

• OIL is a nonrenewable resource that plays a major role in

our lives

• Oil is the #1 ENERGY RESOURCE in the U.S.

Before the 1920s, the U.S. PRODUCED more than 2/3

of the world’s oilToday we IMPORT more than 60% of our oil

When discussing a country’s oil reserves, we

are referring to the total known

amount of oil that can still be removed from the ground.

Most of our OIL usage goes to TRANSPORTATION

We also use oil for many other things!

Oil, By the Barrel

• Oil is pumped out of the ground, carried in pipelines and large tanker ships to refineries. A refinery changes the oil into products like gasoline, jet fuel and diesel fuel. Oil is the “Transportation Fuel”

• Oil is also the key ingredient in tens of thousands of consumer goods, including ink, plastic, dishwashing liquids, crayons, eyeglasses, deodorants, tires, ammonia, and heart valves.

http://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/energy-overview/fossil-fuels/

In order to meet our consumption needs,

the U.S. produces oil,

and imports oil from other countries

To Keep a healthy balance…PRODUCTION + IMPORTS ≥ CONSUMPTION

To Keep a healthy balance:

Imports + Production

>Consumption

Coal, by the “Short Ton”

• Once burned in chimneys to produce heat, today coal is widely used as fuel for power plants that generate electricity for residential and commercial customers.

• The United States has a vast amount coal resources.

Natural Gas, by Trillions of Cubic Feet (TCF)

• Today, the United States is a leading producer of natural gas. By sector, US natural gas consumption in 2011 was:

• 33% Industrial

• 31% Electric Power

• 19% Residential

• 13% Commercial

• 3% Transportation

http://www.instituteforenergyresearch.org/energy-overview/fossil-fuels/

Fossil Fuel Reserves

Measuring Energy• Energy exists in many forms, so there are many ways to quantify it. Two

of the most widely used for general purposes are the British Thermal Unit (BTU), which is a measure of energy content, and the watt, which is a measure of power, or how fast energy is used.

• One BTU is the amount of energy needed to raise a pound of water by one degree Fahrenheit. That's not a very large amount. One cubic foot of natural gas contains around 1,000 BTUs. A gallon of gasoline is about 124,000 BTUs, and a ton of coal represents about 20 million BTUs. Enormous quantities, such as total U.S. energy consumption in a year, are expressed in “quads.” One quad is a quadrillion

• One watt of power is equal to one ampere (a measure of electric current) moving at one volt (a measure of electrical force). Again, this is a fairly small unit. U.S. household electricity is provided at 120 volts. So a 60-watt lightbulb needs half an ampere of current to light up. For larger quantities, watts are usually expressed in multiples of a thousand (kilowatt), million (megawatt), or billion (gigawatt). An average U.S. household consumes electricity at the rate of a little more than one kilowatt, for an annual total of about 10,000 kilowatt-hours (kilowatt-hours equal power multiplied by time).

http://www.nap.edu/reports/energy/sources.html