www.travel-university.org

Technically, petroleum has been defined as an "inflammable mixture of oily hydrocarbons that exudes from the earth or is pumped up". Petroleum literally means "rock oil". It is a liquid having a complex composition, variable density and colour. It is a mixture of hydrocarbons. It contains hydrogen and carbon in varying proportions. It embraces all hydrocarbons other than coal and hence, includes crude oil, Natural gas, natural gasoline and shale oil. Asphalt base oil is heavier than paraffin base or naphthenic base oils. Colour of crude oil varies from yellow to black. Light coloured oil is the best for the production of gasoline and naphtha. The nature of the crude largely determines the products, which can be derived from it by simple refining methods. Three structures are favorable for the oil accumulation, the anticline, the fault and the stratigraphic trap. In order to locate the oil-bearing strata and seepages, structural studies of underlying rocks, core boring and sounding are resorted to. Sedimentary rocks of the earth constituting roughly 40% of the land area of the earth are the potential oil-bearing areas. Continental shelf and the sea floor of the shallow marginal waters surrounding the continents are also potential oil-bearing fields.

Economic Importance: The importance of petroleum is extremely great. Petroleum is a source of motor fuel and lubricants. The crude oil and its close relative, natural gas has become the basic materials for hundreds of highly refined products obtained as chemical by-products of the refining industry. The first oil well was drilled at Titusville, Pennsylvania, USA in August 1859. It was then used as a primitive form of illuminant or lubricant. Many secondary industries have developed in connection with petroleum production. 87% of the crude oil leaves the refinery as gasoline, fuel oil and kerosene. The diesel engine runs on light or distillate fuel oil because of low price. The price has been so low and advantages of diesel engine so great that the new railroad locomotive are diesels. An oil-driven ship can travel three times as far without refueling as a ship using coal, and it can refuel on the high seas. About 50% of all petroleum products relate to transportation.

The present age is the age of machines. Modern machineries will not move without lubrication. Petroleum is the greatest single source of such lubrication in the form of oils and greases. Kerosene now constitutes only 6% of total refinery output in volume. Asphalt base crudes yield asphalt, roofing and road oils. Petroleum will be a growing energy source for a long time to come. Between now and 1992 it is estimated that the world will consume somewhere near 275 billion barrels of oil.

Petroleum technology has not been confined to the energy field. Organic chemists studying hydrocarbons as fuels and lubricants discovered in these same molecules a veritable treasury of raw materials.

In both industry and agriculture we see the same rapid growth. Iron-making blast furnaces have begun to operate more economically by injecting fuel oil or natural gas. Nitrogen fertilizers, pesticides, fungicides, mulches to increase crop yield are important petroleum products that play an increasingly important role in modern farming. There have even been promising tests of petroleum spray to stabilize sand dunes for a year or two, which is necessary to reforest them, build soil on them and reclaim them from desert. The unceasing movement of sand dunes driven by strong winds, which find no break in their sweep across the arid land, can be checked by spraying petroleum products on dune areas.

Next: Unconventional Energy