OIL
- Created by: wardk
- Created on: 30-06-16 19:40
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- OIL
- Formation
- Dead Tropical Marine Plankton
- Anaerobic conditions prevents complete decomposing
- Heat +Pressure causes chemical change of Hydrocarbons into smaller molecules
- Solids (high viscosity) into liquids (low viscosity) +Methane
- Extraction
- Crude oil found in geological structures where liquid oil can flow through permeable rock and collect in the pores between porous rock particles
- Natural gas above and/or water beneath creates a pressure which forces the oil to the surface when a pipe is drilled down
- Pipeline up to 10km deep through impermeablerock cap to reservoir rock underneath
- Availability
- > 5km below surface is difficult to reach as friction increases so pumping fluids down becomes hard. >2km beneath water is hard to exploit as anchoring the floating rig is difficult
- Oil shale reserves are much greater than crude oil however they are solid hydrocarbons (so cannot flow to the surface ) and need to be quarried or heated underground which is expensive.
- Reserves are depleting as it is non renewable, finite and very high demand. Many oil fields are too mall to be exploited profitably.
- Technology
- Primary Recovery: the use of natural pressure to force oil to the surface, extracting 20%
- Secondary Recovery: involves pumping down natural gas or water to maintain pressure, increasing total recovery to 40%
- Tertiary Recovery: involves using solvents, steam or detergents to make the oil less viscous, flowing more easily, rate increased to 60%
- Transport & Storage
- Normally via pipeline, railway, truck/tanker or ship from mine site to refinery
- Pipelines require significantly less energy to operate &shave lower carbon footprint
- Stored in above-surface tanks ready for transport
- Normally via pipeline, railway, truck/tanker or ship from mine site to refinery
- Uses
- Vehicle Fuels e.g. Petrol, Diesel
- Heating Fuels e.g Propane, Butane
- Making Plastics
- Economic Issues
- Costs of rig, drill, pumps, steam, detergents...pipelines, tankers, ships, railway... above surface tanks and refineries
- Trade
- Reserves are not evenly distributed so although MEDCs use over half of the worlds oil production only a small % is home produced
- Most reserves are in the Middle East so transport costs are very expensive
- Environmental Impact
- Combustion and Flaring of surplus mathane on rigs to reduce explosion risk =Air Pollution
- Oil spills from rigs, tankers and pipelines + oil based drilling mud used to lubricate drill pipes may pollute groundwater, rivers and sea
- Habitat Damage due to deep mine subsidence and pipeline construction, reduced by soil replacement/replanting
- Seismic surveys can harm whales
- Formation
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