Friday, February 20, 2015

Oil Crude and Petroleum Products Explained


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3 comments:

Natalie said...

Now I know where oil has come from: the diatoms of plants and animals. I feel like the oil should somehow be (at least) partly environmental-safe because the roots of the oil, as to say, are from the ocean/sea creatures, which is totally natural. Yet, it's not, and not good for the environment. But, we need it! Gas is a main source of life! That is how probably at least 90% of people's transportation is like, how people heat their homes, and how your food/supplies from stores gets to the store. But, recently the gas price shot up. People didn't like that, so some started driving less, not eating out as much, carpooling, and many other effective ways. This works out well for both the companies and the people. It gets the people to drive less and use effective ways to save gas. And it gives the companies more gas. This also works out because some people can't carpool, and they never go out anyway, so they still have to buy gas. It may be expensive, but this goes to research on gas, and ways to make it better for the environment.

Natalie said...

Also:
Again, gas is expensive, but in order to get gas, you need drilling tools to get to the core of the earth. Not only do you need tools, but workers with lots of experience. It's hard to go down in the ocean to drill gas to use for cars etc. And in 2013, ~33% of the petroleum consumed by the United States was imported from foreign countries, which means that we, the US, are pretty dependent on foreign countries' gas (and this was the lowest level since 1985). In 2013, about 50% of the crude oil processed in U.S. refineries was imported. Also in 2013, from about 80 countries, the US imported approximately 9.9 million barrels per day of petroleum. Wow, talk about a lot of gas.

WilliamMu said...

This explains where oil (crude) comes from. It comes from marine animals from millions of years ago with heat and pressure over millions of years making crude oil. It is interesting to know there were animals before the dinosaurs. I also never knew that you can make seven different kinds of gas from one barrel. But what does this mean: "A 42 U.S. gallon barrel of crude oil yields about 45 gallons of petroleum products." This seems confusing. Also petroleum comes in variety as "sweet" or "sour" or viscous or light. I still am amazed about how these people dig so deep down. I guess the reason oil is so expensive is because the drills have to dig very deep, then the oil has to be put in barrels, then it has to be transported to a port via rail, then it has to be loaded on a ship, then it has to be shipped over the Atlantic , then we have unload it onto trains, then we have to refine it, then we can finally sell it, but at a profit. You can see how much we need to do. What I think is interesting is from what I know we never had to import coal in the steam days. Why would we need to import oil?