Petroleum can now be discovered in huge deeper wells that once housed ancient seas. Petroleum reservoirs can be found on land or beneath the ocean’s surface. Giant drilling equipment is used to obtain their crude oil.
Gasoline, a vital substance in our daily life, is made from petroleum. Tires, refrigerators, life jackets, and pain killers are among the thousands of things that are processed and include them .let discuss some facts about petroleum
Interesting Facts about Petroleum
huge quantities of petroleum found under Earth’s surface and in tar pits that bubble to the surface
1. Petroleum can occur in liquid, gaseous, or solid forms
Because liquid and gaseous hydrocarbons are so closely related in nature, it has been common practise to refer to both as “petroleum.” The first use of the phrase petroleum (meaning “rock oil” from the Latin petra, “rock” or “stone,” and oleum, “oil”) is typically credited to Georg Bauer, known as Georgius Agricola, in a paper published in 1556. There is evidence, however, that it may have originated with Persian philosopher-scientist Avicenna five centuries earlier.
2. Natural gas is a liquid form of petroleum
Natural gas is a fossil fuel that was created deep beneath the surface of the earth. Natural gas is made up of a variety of chemicals. Methane, a molecule having one carbon atom and four hydrogen atoms, is the most abundant component of natural gas (CH4). Natural gas also comprises nonhydrocarbon gases including carbon dioxide and water vapour, as well as natural gas liquids (NGLs), which are also hydrocarbon gas liquids. Natural gas is used as a fuel and to manufacture materials and chemicals.
3. word “petroleum” comes from two Latin words: petra, meaning “rock” or “stone,” and oleum, the word for “oil
When referring to both, change “petroleum and natural gas” to “petroleum.” The first use of the phrase petroleum (meaning “rock oil” from the Latin petra, “rock” or “stone,” and oleum, “oil”) is typically credited to Georg Bauer, known as Georgius Agricola, in a paper published in 1556.
4. United States produces around 16% of the world’s oil
Petroleum and natural gas output in the United States climbed by 16 per cent and 12 per cent, respectively, in 2018, setting new production records. In 2011, the United States surpassed Russia as the world’s greatest producer of natural gas, and in 2018, it surpassed Saudi Arabia as the world’s largest producer of petroleum. The growth in US petroleum and natural gas production last year was one of the highest absolute increases in history for a single country.
Petroleum and natural gas production are nearly evenly balanced in the United States and Russia; Saudi Arabia’s production substantially favours petroleum. Crude oil and lease condensate, natural gas plant liquids (NGPLs), and bitumen are among the liquid fuels used in petroleum production. In 2018, the United States produced 28.7 quadrillion British thermal units (quads) of petroleum, with 80 per cent crude oil and condensate and 20 per cent natural gas liquids (NGPLs).
5. Two “supergiant” oil fields in the United States
There are numerous sedimentary basins in North America. Oil resources in the United States have been extensively explored and utilised. There have been over 33,000 oil fields discovered, but only two supergiants (Prudhoe Bay, in the North Slope region of Alaska, and East Texas). The United States has produced more oil than any other country during the course of its history. Its confirmed oil reserves are estimated to be at 40 billion barrels, or around 2% of the world’s total, although the country is still thought to have a considerable undiscovered oil potential. Prudhoe Bay, which accounted for about 17% of US oil production in the mid-1980s, is now in decline.
6. Oil refining is the process of separating different
Petroleum refineries convert crude oil into petroleum products for use as transportation fuels, heating fuels, paving roads, generating power, and as chemical feedstocks.
Refining is the process of breaking down crude oil into its constituent components, which are subsequently reconfigured into new goods. Petroleum refineries are large, complicated, and costly industrial plants. There are three basic phases in any refinery:
Separation , Conversion, Treatment
7. Classification of Crude Oil
Oil is divided into three groups based on three factors: the geographical location where it was drilled, the sulphur level, and the API gravity (a measure of density).
Geographical classification
Drilling for oil takes place all over the world. Brent Crude, West Texas Intermediate, and Dubai and Oman are the three principal sources of crude oil that serve as benchmarks for ranking and pricing other oil supplies.
Brent Crude is a blend of oil from 15 separate North Sea oil fields located between Scotland and Norway. Most of Europe gets its oil from these fields.
8. Oil is the devil’s excrement
“You will see, 20 years from now, oil will bring us destruction,” former Venezuelan Oil Minister and OPEC co-founder Juan Pablo Perez Alfonzo prophesied in the 1970s. It was a strange comment to make at a time when oil was providing Venezuela enormous wealth—the government’s income in 1973 were greater than all prior years combined, prompting hopes that black gold would catapult Venezuela to First World status. Perez Alfonzo, on the other hand, referred to oil as “the devil’s filth.”
Today, he appears to be a forerunner. Venezuela had a functioning democracy and the highest per-capita GDP on the continent when it hit the jackpot. It is now in a state of near-civil war, with a per-capita income that is lower than it was in 1960.
Venezuela, far from being an outlier, is a textbook illustration of what economists refer to as the “natural resource curse.”
9. Petroleum Reservoirs
Reservoirs are subsurface pockets where petroleum is found. The pressure is quite great down beneath the surface of the Earth. Petroleum steadily seeps to the surface, where the pressure is lower. It continues to flow from high to low pressure until it reaches an impenetrable layer of rock. The petroleum is subsequently collected in reservoirs, which can be hundreds of metres beneath the Earth’s surface.
Petroleum can be trapped in structural traps, which arise when large layers of rock are bent or faulted (broken) as the Earth’s landmasses shift. Stratigraphic traps can also be used to contain oil. The quantity of porosity in different strata, or layers of rock, can vary. Crude oil, for example, can easily pass through a layer of sandstone but would be trapped beneath a layer of shale.
10. Oil is also referred to as “Texas Tea” and “Black Gold
While we’re talking about crude oil, it’s also known as “Texas Tea.” (Though, with the exception of Jed Clampett, no one seems to know why.) The name has also taken on additional meanings, such as the Texas version of a Long Island Ice Tea. If we’re talking “Texas T” at Double D Ranch, we’re talking turquoise, of course! It may not be as valuable as gold, but it is just as valuable to us. Finding a good piece of Old Pawn or old turquoise is a thrill as huge as Texas, even if it won’t make us millions.