It has now been more than 50 days since the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and there are many unanswered questions. What is the cause of this environmental disaster – human or mechanical failure? How much oil is really spewing out of the ruptured well? What methods will it take to bring it under control? Who’s in charge in this containment work – BP, the White House or the Coast Guard? When, if ever, will the ecology of the coastline of the U.S. Southern States be healed when the oil stops flowing in the gulf waters? How much will it cost in the cleanup process and who should foot the bill? Many questions are asked, but there are no definite answers forthcoming.
The formation of oil can be traced back to three hundred million years ago when the Earth was covered with swamps, huge trees, ferns and extensive vegetation. Petroleum (crude oil) is thick, black flammable liquid found in pools in deposits in sedimentary rocks usually beneath the earth’s surface – it consists principally of a mixture of hydrocarbons, with traces of various nitrogenous and sulfurous compounds. Oil is often called a ‘fossil fuel’, as most scientists concur that petroleum is the decayed remains of formerly living organisms and plants that lived in shallow seas millions of years ago (Larger prehistoric animals might have contributed to the mix as well.) Rock-forming process in the Earth’s crust covered the decaying plant and animal remains under pressure with layers of rock over millions of years. In this way, carboniferous underground petroleum reservoirs were formed; some of the liquid petroleum pools sometimes reached the earth’s surface when the rock above them was worn down by erosion, but the majority of these reservoirs remain deep in the earth’s crust. http://www.geotech.org/survey/geotech/Oil.pdf
Note: There are also gaseous hydrocarbons (natural gas) found together with the crude oil, in which methane is the most common component.
Man has been obtaining oil from surface pool for thousands of years – the ancient Babylonian, Sumerian, and Assyrian civilizations were well acquainted with the uses of oil. There are archaeological evidences of the people of these civilizations using crude oil or pitch from the Euphrates River for lighting and caulking their boats. The ancient Egyptian civilization also used oil for medicinal purposes, and Ancient Persian tablets indicate the medicinal and lighting uses of petroleum. And in Biblical Israel the Dead Sea used to be called Lake Asphaltites due to lumps of gooey petroleum that were washed up on the lake shore.
But underground oil reservoirs were not used until 1859 when the first oil well was drilled by Edwin L. Drake in Pennsylvania. His discovery triggered an oil boom that was the beginning of the oil bonanza in the United States, yet historical records indicate the world’s first commercial oil well was drilled in in Poland in 1853. Oil exploration developed in many parts of the world with the Russian Empire taking the lead in production by the end of the 19th century. Oil exploration in North America during the early 20th century led to the U.S. becoming the leading producer. As petroleum production in the U.S. peaked during the 1960s, however, Saudi Arabia and Russia surpassed the U.S.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petroleum
Note: Originally the primary use of petroleum was as a lighting fuel, once it had been distilled and turned into kerosene. Yet through the invention of the automobile that proved that this type of vehicle would be the best form of transport for decades to come, and gasoline began to be a product in high demand.
Today oil and natural gas are the most expensive natural resources, which are depleting fast. There is a huge focus on creating a greater amount of oil and petrol independence in the USA, and also to protect the environment. Offshore oil and gas production is one of the answers and quite a challenge as there are also environmental risks associated with oil spills, as seen in the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, which is the greatest environmental disaster in the USA.
