Also know as "black gold", Oil is one of the most desired resources of nature and, at the same time, rejected by the world's societies. And it is that having sources of oil is not always a sign of wealth. There are many advantages and disadvantages of oil, which are mainly focused on economic advantages for those who exploit the oil sources and environmental and social disadvantages for the regions that suffer such exploitation. There are many studies and analyzes that seek to know the availability of this fossil fuel in the world, some of which indicate that the "peak oil" has already been passed and that it is running out more and more quickly.
In this complete article by Ecologist Verde you will find more information about black gold, you will discover how oil is formed and more details related to its extraction and characteristics.
What is oil
Oil is considered worldwide as one of the fossil fuels most used in our day to day. Despite its negative effects on the environment (both during its extraction and final deposition processes), the oil uses by the societies of the world are multiple, but summarizing them we can indicate that they are:
- Fuel in the gasoline of vehicles, machinery and energy and thermal industries.
- Production of plastics in materials and fabrics to give rise to objects of all kinds.
Now that we know what is oil used forLet's see what is the nature of this compound, that is, its chemical composition. Oil is mainly made up of carbon and hydrogen (hydrocarbons), which are stored at high depth, having a characteristic oily liquid consistency. To better understand its uses and fuels of this type, we advise you to read this other post about What are fossil fuels and how they were formed.
In the next sections we will see more characteristics of oil, as well as its formation and extraction processes to know the details of this fossil fuel.
Oil formation
The oil origin It is one of the most surprising natural phenomena discovered by human beings. In summary, the oil formation process is the following:
- For millions of years the decomposition of organic remains of living beings (both animals and plants) has been occurring, which were being deposited on the seabed and lake areas.
- These organic remains were buried under many meters of layers of earth and rocks.
- The pressure exerted by these layers was causing the result of the decomposition in a medium without oxygen (anaerobic) was an oily, viscous liquid compound, with a higher density than water and a dark color: petroleum. In addition, natural gas also appears during this type of process.
Know how oil was formed, has allowed to discover more and more sources of oil around the world. In the next section we will see exactly where this fossil hydrocarbon is most likely to be found.
Where is the oil?
Did you know that oil was already used in times of the Roman and Egyptian civilizations? However, at that time they did not have the machinery and technology necessary to access the oil reserves located deeper, sometimes being located up to 5,000 meters deep.
As we have seen in the previous sections, given the chemical composition and formation of oil, it is essential to have large sources of organic matter and water resources which are deep and subject to high pressure. In this way, the ideal places for the formation of oil are, first of all, in the ocean depths, followed by Coast zones, as well as in river mouths, lakes and lagoons.
Some examples of countries and regions of the planet where large oil sources have been discovered are:
- Venezuela.
- Saudi Arabia.
- Canada.
- Iran.
- Russia.
- Nigeria.
- U.S.
- Brazil.
How the oil is extracted
The oil extraction methods they depend, fundamentally, on the location of the oil source, that is to say, either in terrestrial or marine areas. Due to the pressure exerted by sediments and rocks on oil sources, this tends to be expelled towards the earth's surface through channels and cracks once these rocks are pierced, which act as a warehouse in which the oil accumulated over millions of years.
Thus, to know the subject well, it is also necessary to take into account these processes about the oil extraction process:
- Start by having the appropriate machinery and technology that allows, on the one hand, to carry out topographic and drilling studies of the terrain and on the other hand, extract and store oil in pipes and special storage systems.
- This first oil is also called raw. This cannot be used directly, but needs to go through one or more refining processes (by fractional distillation), depending on the type of final oil to be obtained, such as, for example, liquefied petroleum gas resulting from mixing butane and propane during oil refining.
- Others types of oil They are classified according to their density (light-medium-heavy-extra heavy) or according to their composition (paraffinic, naphthenic or mixed base).
In addition, by applying different temperatures during the oil refining process, various Petroleum derivatives, such as:
- Methane
- Butane
- The gas.
- Kerosene.
- Fuel oil.
- Paraffins.
- The tars.
All these petroleum derivatives also have various industrial uses. If you are interested in learning more about this fossil fuel, you can enter the links to our articles about oil slicks and the environmental impact of oil and natural gas.
If you want to read more articles similar to How oil is formed, we recommend that you enter our category of non-renewable energies.
Bibliography- Botello, A. (2005) Characteristics, composition and physicochemical properties of oil. Institute of Marine Sciences and Limnology (UNAM): Gulf of Mexico Pollution and Environmental Impact: Diagnosis and Trends, 2nd Edition, pp: 261-268.
- Rivera, M.C. et al., (2002) Adaptation and selection of autochthonous microorganisms in culture media enriched with crude oil. Terra Latinoamericana Magazine, Mexican Society of Soil Science. Volume 20 (4), pp: 423-434.
- De la cruz, L. (2003) Oil production. Carabobo State Engineers Center (CEIDEC) , pp: 4-30.
