Oil Reserves Report

Oil reserves report Oil is one of our most precious and important resources. We rarely consider how important oil is to the running of our everyday lives. The most obvious use of crude oil is as a fuel. Oil is fractionally distilled at oil refineries to separate the different hydrocarbons in crude oil. One of the most important of these is petrol, or octane (C8H18). Petrol, along with diesel, is the main fuel for transport. Cars, of course run on petrol, but diesel-electric trains also require oil based fuels. All aircraft consume a large amount of kerosene – another part of oil. A further use of oil is for power. Although only less than 5% of our power is produced in oil-fired power stations it is still a valid use for oil. The other key use for oil is processing certain hydrocarbons to produce polymers which are used to make artificial fibres and paints. Oil based monomers are polymerised to form long-chain molecules that can be used to make synthetic fibres like nylon and polyester, used in clothes. Another use for oil is in the production of plastics. Plastics are made in a similar way to other polymers. After the First World War, improvements in chemical technology led to an explosion in new forms of plastics. Among the earliest examples in the wave of new plastics were "polystyrene" (PS) and "polyvinyl chloride" (PVC), developed by IG Farben of Germany. Plastics are now everywhere in the modern world.

The world’s current oil reserves can be seen on the map. The largest reserves are to be found in the deserts of the Middle East, in areas such as Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia.

There are also generous oil reserves in Russia, Venezuela and Alaska. Oil from Nigeria and Venezuela is typically more viscous because it contains a higher percentage of long chain hydrocarbons. Middle Eastern oil is runnier and contains smaller hydrocarbon molecules. Oil reserves give massive commercial benefits to the nation they are owned by, because every country requires oil. An example of the benefits of oil to a nation is Saudi Arabia. Once a relatively poor collection of desert provinces; during the 1940s, massive oil reserves began to be exploited. This gave the newly unified nation a great deal of new wealth and international influence. No country can afford to ignore the great oil powers like Saudi Arabia because every economy requires so much oil. However, great oil wealth can make oil rich nations a target for military attacks. In the early 1990s, dictator of Iraq, Saddam Hussein, turned his military might upon the oil rich nations of Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. This was mainly because Iraq was bankrupt at the time and needed a source of quick wealth. However, with so much at stake for all developed countries that rely on oil, a coalition, led by the USA chose to intervene, and freed Kuwait from the Iraqi military. This conflict, known as the Gulf War, shows how concerned the governments of all Western countries are of their supplies of oil being cut. Despite its obvious benefit in being a good fuel and brilliant for manufacturing a wide range of products, the use of oil can have detrimental effects on the environment. Oil spills happen when the large oil tankers that transport oil around the world capsize or somehow release the oil they are transporting into the sea. Oil spills harm sea birds because oiled birds cannot keep warm and find it very difficult to fly. The combustion of oil releases harmful gases into the atmosphere, one of these is carbon dioxide, which is thought to contribute to the Greenhouse effect by trapping the Sun’s energy trying to escape back into space. Other pollutants like sulphur dioxide, which causes acid rain, and nitrous oxides, which can cause asthma are also made by burning oil. Long chain hydrocarbons can be broken down into smaller hydrocarbons by thermal cracking. The smaller hydrocarbons are more useful as fuels and monomers. Cracking the hydrocarbons in oil uses a lot of heat, which has to be produced in power stations by combustion and so makes lots of pollutants. As well as the environmental effects of oil use, oil is also said to be nonrenewable. This means that oil is being consumed much faster than it is being produced. It forms over millions of years in very hard-to-find conditions (i.e.

This is a diagram that Hubbert used to predict the peak and subsequent decline of US oil

the absence of oxygen). It is now predicted that we have only forty years of oil left with the current reserves we have. The timeframe for the maximum production of oil, and then a decline in production, is called peak oil. M. King Hubbert first used the theory in 1956 to accurately predict that United States oil production would peak between 1965 and 1970. This peak oil timeframe has been proved right on other occasions with other countries. You can see in the diagram that once world oil production has peaked it starts to decline until it cannot fulfil demand. What peak oil is really telling us is that we must brace ourselves for a world without oil. A world without oil will be a difficult one to live in. For a start, none of the products like plastic will be being made any more. We must find other fuels for our cars and our power stations. This is why environmentalists are pushing us to use renewable energy sources instead of relying so heavily on fossil fuels. One idea is to use ethanol from plants in cars along with normal petrol reduce the amount of petrol used. This sort of fuel is called Gasohol; it is common in the Midwest of America and in Thailand. Renewable power sources like wind and water are also beginning to be used in some countries to replace other methods; they are also beneficial because they do not produce carbon dioxide gas, thought to be a cause for global warming. My personal opinion is that we should begin in earnest to prepare for a world without oil. The continual increase in the use of renewable energies is a good route to follow, but we also need to consider what materials will be able to replace plastics. My belief is that the world’s leaders need to begin thinking about how the world will cope in forty years with no oil, instead of worrying whether they will win the next election. However, the oil crisis may be a good opportunity for researchers to discover and promote new methods for making and materials or fuels, which have previously been seen as pointless due to the use of oil, so ingrained in our society.