Oil and Gas

Zoe Atkinson

Oil/Petroleum

• A non-renewable resource

• Widely used in industry, many types of transportation, and residentially

• Made up of Carbon, Hydrogen, Nitrogen, Oxygen, and Sulfur, and minimal traces of Metals

• Is obtained by drilling into land or ocean crust and pumping oil out

Oil pipelines are often used to transport oil within a country or continent.

How it is Made

• A Fossil Fuel created by the fossilization of organic materials such as vegetation, plankton, and other animals, this matter is called Biomass

• Biomass was deposited on the earths surface millions of years ago and was covered with thick layers of sedimentary rock

• Intense heat and pressure turns the organic matter into Kerogen, then with more heat and pressure into oil, and when even more heat and pressure is added it turns into natural gas

Uses

• Petroleum is refined and used in many different types of fuels such as gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, and kerosene, these fuels are burned to provide energy

• Used in various Lubricants• In wax form as packaging of frozen foods• Street Asphalt• Paraffin Wax• Sulfur and Sulfuric Acid

Oil Usage per Capita

Wealth

• Petroleum is a limited resource which is vital to our way of life and therefore it is very expensive

• Oil costs about $80 a barrel at this time• Petroleum deposits are concentrated in different

areas around the world which makes certain countries very reliant on oil profits

• The uneven distribution of oil resources has cause countless political issues

• The top exporters are Saudi Arabia, Russia, and Norway

• Canada is the 15th highest exporter of oil

Oil Exports

Oil Spills

• Oil is often transported by huge barges across our oceans and these barges can leak or sink

• Contaminates the water and kills marine life• Covers marine birds and prevents them from flying, and

they can die from ingesting the oil when they try to clean themselves

• Oil covers sea otters’ fur and fills in the air pockets leaving them vulnerable to hypothermia

• Oil can plug the blow-holes of whales, and stop their breathing, whales can also be poisoned by eating fish contaminated by oil

• Oil in the water kills thousands of small organisms which disrupts the natural food chain

A drill is being used to pump oil out of the ground.

Environmental Effects

• Oil production and transportation can disrupt animal communities and destroy land

• Damage to the environment occurs at all stages of oil use, searching, drilling, pumping, refining, transporting, and consuming the oil

• Oil waste dumping, production pollution, and toxic runoff can contaminate water and soil killing plants and animals

• When oil is burned it produces carbon dioxide which builds up in the atmosphere creating the greenhouse gas effect and global warming

• The combustion of oil also produces sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide which seep into air moisture and fall as acid rain which destroys buildings and crops

Solutions

• Worldwide, we need to greatly reduce our usage of oil and petroleum products

• Only use renewable, less polluting energy sources such as hydro, solar, wind, or wave energy

• Walk or take public transportation when possible• Eliminate the use of disposable plastic items such as

bags, cutlery, toys, food packaging, etc.• Buy local goods to eliminate transportation• Invest in researching alternative energy sources

especially ones that could be used in transportation such as Biofuel, or hydrogen combustion

• Educate others about the problem and solutions

Sources

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synthetic_oil• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petroleum#Export• http://library.thinkquest.org/CR0215471/oil_spills.htm• http://www1.american.edu/ted/projects/tedcross/

xoilpr15.htm• http://postconflict.unep.ch/sudanreport/sudan_website/

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• http://library.thinkquest.org/CR0214752/problems-2.html