Petroleum (Oil)

• Anywhere we find petroleum, we’re looking at an area that was under the ocean millions of years ago.
• Plants and animals died, were buried by sand and slowly pressed into oil and gas hydrocarbons.
  • This super slow process is continuing and someday today’s seaweed will become oil!

• Giant machines drill through the rock layers above the petroleum, then pumps suck the petroleum out of the ground.

Oil can be pumped on land or from under the ocean floor

• Not all countries in the world are on top of an ancient ocean, so distribution of petroleum isn’t equal.
• You may recognize many countries on this map just because of their luck to be sitting on ancient ocean juice and the politics behind the fact that everyone in the world wants it!
• Current top producers:
  • #1 – US
  • #2 – Saudi Arabia
  • #3 – Russia

• It requires millions of oil wells to pump all of the oil humans use and they aren’t exactly pretty.
• 100 years ago, Los Angeles valley was covered with oil wells (hardly a glamorous place for movie stars!).
• So they disguised the wells as fake buildings and art installations to keep making that money.

• While pipes are the most efficient way to move petroleum around, they can leak and spray into the environment.

• When offshore drilling rigs in the middle of the ocean experience a failure, they release crude oil directly into the ocean.
• In 2010, the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded and sank, breaking off the main pipe over a mile below the waves. 134 million gallons of oil devastated the Gulf region of the US until it was plugged 45 days later.

• Along with leaks from offshore rigs, oil tankers can leak into the ocean when their hull is punctured in an accident.
• Because oil is less dense than water, it forms a thin slick that devastates birds and mammals that contact the surface to breathe.
• In 1989, oil tanker named the Exxon Valdez ran aground and dumped over 10 million gallons along the Alaskan coastline, which lingers in coastal rocks to this day.

• Petroleum accounts for 36% of all the energy consumed in the US.
• Red sliver of pie chart

• The majority of petroleum is made into fuels like diesel and gasoline for transportation engines.

• US doesn’t use petroleum to generate electricity in large scale powerplants.
• Petroleum is primarily made into different fuels for small transport engines.

United States consumes the most petroleum in the world.

Mexico is the most reliant on petroleum with it accounting for over 40% of their energy.