Interesting facts about oil. Remarkable but little-known facts about oil Do you love whales? Good, because it was only thanks to oil that they were saved from complete extermination.
Barrel (from the English barrel - letters: barrel) - a unit of volume used in the oil industry in a number of countries, equal to 42 US gallons; distinguish between a simple barrel (119.24 liters), an oil barrel (158.76 liters) in the UK it is equal to (163.65 liters);
Oil is not only black, but also colorless, green, brown, yellow and even red. In addition, each color has its own shades;
Even one barrel of oil contains a gigantic amount of energy. It is equal to approximately 20 thousand man-hours of work. One hundred people have to work for a whole month for 7 hours a day without days off (say, harvesting) in order to expend the amount of energy contained in one barrel of oil;
When oil was discovered (sometime in the 16th century), it was collected from the surface of the river and used as a remedy, and since this substance had oily properties, it was also used for lubrication;
The first oil well was drilled in 1859 in the US state of Pennsylvania by a group of entrepreneurs led by Edwin Drake;
Computers are 80-90% of the end product of oil. Oil is used to produce DVDs and CDs;
During the entire time of the current "oil era" (mostly over the past 70 years), approximately 950 billion barrels of oil have been burned in the world. Now, about 30 billion barrels of oil are burned worldwide per year (about 80 million barrels per day).
The remaining oil reserves in the world (excluding deposits that may be discovered in the future) do not exceed 1,150 billion barrels;
0.82 m - the edge of the cube, which will fit all the oil consumed in 2005 on average per 1 inhabitant of the Earth;
11.37 m - the edge of the cube, which will fit the oil reserve of Saudi Arabia on average per 1 inhabitant of this country;
Buying gasoline at night is more profitable than during the day, since at low temperatures its density increases, so that with the same amount of fuel there will be more;
One drop of oil renders 25 liters of water unfit for drinking. Oil spills on the surface of the water in a thin layer. Protect the environment! It is no coincidence that she hid the oil underground - away from human eyes.
Saved
- Barrel (from the English barrel - letters: barrel) - a unit of volume used in the oil industry of a number of countries, equal to 42 US gallons; distinguish between a simple barrel (119.24 liters), an oil barrel (158.76 liters) in the UK it is equal to (163.65 liters); - ...
"/>
Oil in the modern world is a very important resource. People began to use oil at the dawn of civilization, albeit in ways that seem naive and even strange today. Today, without it, the production of various goods is impossible, and wars are fought for control of the oil market. Our review contains little-known and simply interesting facts about oil and gas.
1. Lead in gasoline
The chemist Thomas Midgley was the first to put forward the idea that adding lead to gasoline would reduce engine knock. Some say this discovery caused more environmental damage than anything else in the world.
2. Gasoline prices
Gasoline prices in the US are twice as low as those in the EU.
3. Castor oil and pilots
During World War I, aircraft used castor oil as an engine lubricant. Due to the fact that the remains of unburned castor oil were thrown out of the exhaust pipe, pilots often suffered from diarrhea.
4. USA, Canada, Mexico...
America gets more oil from Canada and Mexico than from all countries in the Middle East combined.
5. Statoil
Norwegian oil company Statoil put one of its platforms up for sale with the following ad: "For sale well maintained platform with 20 bedrooms with panoramic sea views. There is also enough space for a helicopter."
6. 120 free liters of gasoline
More recently, in Turkmenistan, each driver received 120 free liters of gasoline per month.
7. The average annual salary of a US oil worker
The average annual salary of an employee oil rig was about $100,000 in 2011.
8. The school is pumping oil
secondary school Beverly Hills California has 19 oil wells on its campus. The school earns about US$300,000 a year.
9. Diesel
Diesel engines were named after their inventor, not the fuel. In fact, one of the first diesel engines worked on peanut butter.
10. Half of the world's oil consumption
The United States accounts for almost half of the world's oil consumption.
11. Saudi Arabia falls behind
Russia produces about 1 million barrels more oil daily than Saudi Arabia.
12. Drunken Price Drop
In 2010, London-based broker Steve Perkins, while heavily drunk, accidentally bought more than $500 million worth of oil. He single-handedly managed to lower world oil prices to an 8-month high.
13. DT vs. cigarettes
According to World Organization healthcare, diesel fuel is more carcinogenic than cigarettes.
14. The most expensive AI-95
Norway has some of the highest gasoline prices in the world. The proceeds are used to provide free education and improve infrastructure.
15. Biofuel
Even if all US corn and soybean production were concentrated in biofuel production, this would only satisfy about 10% of fuel demand.
16. Battleship Arizona
The engine room of the battleship USS Arizona, which was sunk in 1941 at Pearl Harbor, still leaks fuel, forming a stain on the surface of the water above the ship.
17. Oil reserves of Iraq
Despite the fact that the US spent nearly $700 billion on the Iraq war, all oil contracts were bought by other countries. This came as a surprise to many people, but America was almost the only country that did not benefit from oil reserves Iraq.
18. Oil pipeline in Ecuador
From the oil pipeline in Ecuador flowed into rainforests The Amazon has more oil than the oil spill from the Exxon Valdez tanker accident in Alaska.
19. Aboriginal drug addicts
The US is in a difficult environmental situation.
Over the past 25 years, there have been nearly two dozen oil spills in the US.
22. 300 billion barrels
Venezuela has the largest oil reserves in the world, estimated at almost 300 billion barrels. The US ranks 10th with 33 billion barrels.
23. Waterproof sealant and adhesive
Oil has always been important to civilization. Ancient cultures used it to bond materials and also as a waterproof sealant.
For curious readers, we have collected and. Everyone should know this for their own safety.
Recently, the site published the top ten most interesting facts about oil. Today we decided to collect interesting facts about gas. Everyone knows that natural gas- one of the most important fossil fuels, occupying key positions in the fuel and energy balances of many states, an important raw material for chemical industry. There are facts from which you can learn a lot of interesting and useful things about gas, which many of us do not even know about.
Top 10 Interesting Gas Facts:
1. Natural gas has no color, no taste, no smell. The characteristic smell of gas, reminiscent of the smell of rotten eggs, suggests that after extraction, a special substance is added to it - an odorant, the smell of which just reminds rotten eggs. An odorant is needed to warn a person about a leak.
2. In which state can you find the door to the underworld? In 1971, while drilling an exploration well in Turkmenistan, geologists stumbled upon an underground cavity. A gap formed, filled with gas, into which the drilling rig with all the equipment sank. To prevent the harmful gas from escaping, they decided to set it on fire. It was assumed that in a few days the fire would go out, but the gas is still burning to this day. Travelers gave this place the name "The Door to the Underworld."
3. What birds helped the miners? Canaries are very sensitive to methane content in the air. This feature was used at one time by miners who, descending underground, took with them a cage with a canary. If the singing had not been heard for a long time, then it was necessary to go upstairs as quickly as possible.
4. What animals warned the soldiers about the gas attack? During World War I, cats were kept in the trenches to provide early warning of a gas attack. And during World War II, they were taken aboard submarines as living air quality detectors.
5. How can birds detect a gas leak? In some states, Americans add a rotten-meat-smelling chemical to gas pipelines. This makes it easy to find the leak where the bars start to circle.
6. In the 19th century in Russia and Europe, artificial lighting gas, which was produced from coal, was used to illuminate the streets. This gas was released when coal was heated in special closed vessels - retorts. It was accumulated in storage facilities and delivered through a pipeline system to street gas lamps. In Russia, the first plant for the production of lighting gas was built in St. Petersburg in 1835.
7. Even in ancient times, natural gas began to be used for household needs. For example, in the 1st century AD. The Persian king ordered the construction of a palace kitchen on the spot where the gas was escaping to the surface. The fire there burned day and night, and it was not necessary to spend either wood or coal to keep it going.
8. The world's largest liquefied natural gas tanker is 345 meters long - three and a half times longer than a football field.
9. The world's longest underwater gas pipeline is laid between Norway and the UK along the bottom North Sea. It's called Langeled. Its length is 1200 km.
10. The total length of gas pipelines in Russia is over 872,000 kilometers. This is twice the distance from the Earth to the Moon, or 20 times the length of the equator.
In Russian, the word oil came from Turkish (from the word oil), which comes from the Persian naft, and which in turn was borrowed from the Semitic languages. Akkadian (Assyrian) word nartn"oil" comes from a Semitic verbal root npt from initial value"to spew, spew" (Arabic naft, naft- "spewed out, uprooted").
There are other versions of the meaning of the word oil. For example, according to some sources, the word oil derived from Akkadian napatum, which means "flare up, ignite", according to others - from ancient Iranian naft meaning "something wet, liquid".
But, for example, the Chinese, the first, by the way, drilled oil well back in 347 AD, they called and still call oil - shi yo which literally means "mountain oil".
English word petroleum, which the Americans and the British call crude oil, also, by the way, means "mountain oil" and comes from the Greek petra(mountain) and Latin oleum(butter).
2. Do you think oil came from extinct dinosaurs?
It may seem strange to oil professionals, but many people outside the oil industry think that oil was formed from dinosaurs and other ancient animals.
Oil did form from organic material (the remains of living organisms), but these were organisms much smaller than dinosaurs. According to scientists, the starting material for the formation of oil were microorganisms inhabiting coastal sea waters- plankton, 90% of which is phytoplankton.
3. Or maybe you think that oil lies underground in the form of oil lakes or seas?
This is another of the misconceptions that people who are far from oil industry. In fact, there are no oil lakes in the bowels of the earth. Earth's crust folded rocks different mineral composition and different density. Rocks with a relatively low density, which have the ability to contain mobile substances (fluids), such as oil, gas, water, are called reservoirs. Such reservoir rocks, impregnated with oil, form oil fields.
4. Oil has been used by humans for over 6,000 years.
Oil has been known to people since ancient times. In ancient Babylon, bitumen was used in the construction of buildings and for sealing sea vessels. Tar was first used in the 8th century in Baghdad in the construction of roads. The ancient Egyptians and later the Greeks used primitive lamps for lighting, fueled by light oils.
At times Byzantine Empire"Greek fire" - an incendiary mixture, was a formidable weapon, since attempts to extinguish it with water only intensified the burning. Its exact composition is lost, but scientists suggest that it was a mixture of various petroleum products and other combustible substances.
5. Do you like whales? Good, because it was only thanks to oil that they were saved from complete extermination.
In the nineteenth century, there was a huge demand for whale oil. Whale oil was widely used in lighting lamps, as it burned slowly without emitting smoke and bad smell. In addition, whale oil was used to make candles, as a lubricant for watch movements, as a protective coating in early photographs, and as an essential element in the manufacture of medicines, soaps and cosmetics.
Due to increased demand, whale hunting by the middle of the 19th century led to the almost complete extinction of these animals. But thanks to cheaper oil-refining kerosene and the discovery of its safe use as a light source, the demand for whale oil began to plummet. The whaling fleet of the United States, for example, consisted of 735 ships in 1846, and by 1879 there were only 39 of them. In the end, whaling almost completely ceased, as it had lost any economic sense.
The only thing whale oil is still used for is space exploration. It turned out that whale blubber (more precisely, blubber of sperm whales) does not freeze even when anomalously low temperatures(which exist in outer space). Thereby unique property whale oil is an ideal lubricant for use in space probes.
6. Gasoline was once extremely cheap...because it was useless.
At the dawn of the development of the oil industry, kerosene was the target product of oil refining. This was before passenger cars became a popular and widespread means of transportation. Gasoline, which at that time was a by-product of the distillation of oil into kerosene, did not have significant demand. It was very cheap product, which was used to treat lice or as a solvent to clean grease stains from fabric. In fact, gasoline was so cheap that many oil companies simply dumped it into the river.7. The reason why Saudi sheikhs are so rich.
Oil production is a rather complicated process, but at the same time, the technology of oil production is quite well studied and developed. Saudi Aramco is a national company that produces oil in Saudi Arabia and is wholly owned by the state. This company is the world's largest oil company in terms of oil production.
Do you know how much it costs Saudi Aramco to produce one barrel of oil?
It knows Forbes magazine. Here is what he writes (in my rather loose translation):
For comparison: in the Russian oil company Rosneft, the cost of producing one barrel of oil averages $14.57. And taking into account the costs of exploration, drilling of wells and modernization of the refinery, it turns out to be $21 per barrel.
8. In 1900, Russia produced more than half of the world's oil production.
In 1900, 631.1 million poods of oil were produced in Russia, which accounted for 51.6% of the total world oil production.
At that time, oil production was carried out in 10 countries: Russia, the USA, the Dutch East Indies, Romania, Austria-Hungary, India, Japan, Canada, Germany, Peru. At the same time, the main oil-producing countries were Russia and the United States, which together accounted for more than 90% of all world oil production.
The peak of oil production in Russia occurred in 1901, when 706.3 million poods of oil were produced (50.6% of world production). After that, due to the economic crisis and falling demand, oil production in Russia began to decline. The price of oil, which in 1900 amounted to 16 kopecks. per pood, in 1901, due to an overabundance of supply, it fell by 2 times to 8 kopecks. for a pud. In 1902, the price was 7 kopecks. per pood, after which there was a tendency to restore demand and volumes of oil production. This trend was interrupted by the revolution of 1905, which was accompanied by arson and the general destruction of the Baku oil fields.
9. Rising oil prices inevitably lead to higher prices for all goods.
What if the price of oil goes up? Even if it grows many times, and after it the price of gasoline, it would seem, what ordinary person before this thing? You can also walk to work or ride a bike, for that matter.
Although most of oil is used to propel different kind transport, yet part of it goes to heating needs and some to obtain chemical components that are used in almost all consumer goods sold in stores today.
And although at first rising oil prices may not lead to rising prices for consumer goods (because different reasons), however, most economists believe that this is just a matter of time.
Since oil is a non-renewable source of energy, many scientists and oil professionals are concerned about how long we will have enough oil and when it will run out. Peak oil theory was expressed in 1956 by the American geophysicist King Hubbert. He predicted that US oil production would peak between 1965 and 1970 and then decline. Subsequently, this concept was extended to the entire world oil production.
Although the threat of the complete depletion of existing oil reserves looks rather vague and very distant, there is a more real and more immediate threat besides it. This threat lies in the inelastic demand for oil. Inelastic demand on oil means that a relatively small drop in production could be the reason for a sharp rise in oil prices. Oil shock experienced Western countries in the 70s, was caused by a 25% drop in supply in the oil market. At the same time, the price of oil jumped by 400%. That is why the achievement of the peak of world oil production and the subsequent significant drop clearly brings with it significant problems for the entire world economy.
The peak oil concept has both its ardent supporters and no less staunch opponents. The rise in oil prices, according to supporters of the oil peak, clearly indicates a lack of production and the approach of its peak values. It is often pointed out that in many oil-producing countries the peak in oil production has already been passed, including in the USA, where the maximum production was reached in 1971 and has been steadily falling since then. And what happened in some oil-producing countries will inevitably happen in all others. The only question is when exactly this will happen, and how sharply production will fall.
Opponents of the peak oil concept point out that the projected date for the peak of world oil production has been revised more than once. Each time it is postponed to a later date, upon reaching which it is postponed again. Hubbert, who correctly predicted the peak of oil in the United States, miscalculated with the prediction of the world peak in oil production. According to his theory, world oil production was supposed to grow until the year 2000, after which a global recession was predicted. As we know, nothing of the sort happened.
Critics of the peak oil theory point to the opportunities provided by the development of new technologies for oil production, involvement in the development of unconventional hard-to-recover reserves oil (heavy and extra-heavy oil, bituminous oil, shale oil). According to many eminent scientists and experts, rates of growth world production will gradually decline. Then oil production stabilizes at a certain level, quite acceptable for the world economy. In parallel, alternative, including renewable energy sources will be developed. And thus, it will be possible to avoid any shock phenomena due to the shortage of oil.
Question “Have we peaked in oil production?” while it remains open and not fully clarified. Quite clearly, the trend of the world oil industry's transition from the production of light oil to the production of heavier and more difficult oil can only be traced.
It is believed that mankind has been actively using oil for its needs for more than 6,000 years. The ancient Babylonians used bitumen to build buildings and to coat the surface of boats and ships. Another oil substance, tar, was used in the 8th century as a bonding agent when laying roads in Baghdad. The Egyptians used light grades of oil to light their homes. The basis of the recipe for Greek fire, which was used by the Byzantines as a flamethrower weapon, was oil. Petroleum is now made from oil different types plastic, cosmetics, washing powder, medicines and other items that we use in Everyday life. Interesting Facts about oil - history, geology, use.
Origin of the term
The Russian word oil underwent an interesting evolution - the Turkish word "neft" was borrowed from Persian, in which it sounded like "naft", and in the ancient Persian language "naft" meant not only oil in the modern sense, but also just a liquid. The Persians took this concept from the Assyrians (naptn), while the Assyrians took the root “npt” from the Akkadians, which means “spewing”. The Akkadian language has the word napatum, meaning "inflammation".
It is believed that the Chinese were the first to drill an oil well, this event is mentioned under the year 347, in Chinese the substance is called "mountain oil". Bamboo pipes were used for drilling and extraction, the depth of the wells could exceed two hundred meters.
IN English language the word "petrolium" means crude oil, this word comes from the Greek word "petra" (mountain) and the Latin word "oleum" (oil).
Geology
It is believed that oil was formed from extinct organisms. Only these were not mammoths or dinosaurs, but marine plankton, and a large proportion is not plankton of animal origin, but of plant origin.
Combustible raw materials do not lie in the form of underground lakes, but accumulate in the so-called collectors - rocks that have a low density and are capable of accumulating liquids, including oil.
The largest oil producing company is Saudi Aramco, which is wholly owned by the state of Saudi Arabia. She is also the most profitable company in the world - after all, the cost of producing one barrel of oil is about two dollars (in Russia, the production of a barrel of oil costs ten times more, about $20), and until recently the price on the world market was $130 per barrel. But if this oil is processed at the plant, it can bring up to $500 in profit.
Oil is similar in composition to coal. These two combustible substances, together with gas, shale, and peat, are called caustobioliths. For the first time, the similarity of the composition was noted by Lomonosov in the study “On the Layers of the Earth”, published in 1763.
Coal, like oil, can be used to make gasoline, but the process is expensive and labor intensive. But the Germans in the Second world war, when they experienced difficulties with the supply of oil, they made fuel from coal for military equipment, including aircraft.
The usual color is black, but there is also oil green, red, blue color. There is colorless oil, which is actually gas condensate. The consistency distinguishes heavy oil, which contains a lot of non-carbon impurities. Such a liquid is dense and inconvenient for extraction. Light oil is suitable for the production of kerosene and gasoline.
History
Black gold saved whales from extermination, since in the 19th century whale oil was used for lighting (lighting lamps were poured into it and candles were made from it), for lubricating watch mechanisms, and photographs were covered with it so that they last longer. Whale oil has also been used in the chemical industry to make soap, cosmetical tools. This substance was used in the twentieth century as a vitamin supplement and for the manufacture of medicines. When kerosene was made from oil, the demand for whale oil fell and in just 30 years the US whaling fleet decreased by 20 times, whaling became unprofitable.
In the 19th century, kerosene was the main product, and gasoline, which was a by-product of distillation, was very cheap. Gasoline was used to treat head lice, to remove greasy stains on clothes. Often gasoline was simply poured into the river, since the demand for it was very small. Everything changed with the invention of the internal combustion engine - gasoline became in demand and began to rise in price sharply.
Around 1900, Russia was the world leader in oil production - its share was about half of oil production, in total more than 600 million poods of oil were produced annually.
The price of oil directly affects the price of all goods, since the price usually includes transportation costs.
American geophysicist King Hubbert in 1956 put forward the theory that after 1970, oil production in the United States will reach its peak, and after that it will decline. In the case of the United States, this forecast came true, but other countries continued to increase production. But sooner or later the world's reserves will run out. The danger is not that oil will run out, but that even a slight cut in production could lead to a disproportionate rise in cents. Thus, in the 1970s, Western countries experienced the so-called "oil shock", in which a quarter-fold drop in production led to a fourfold increase in prices.
Despite existing forecasts of an imminent drop in oil production, one should not be afraid that oil will disappear - after all, new technologies make it possible to extract what black gold, which remained in the ground after previous developments, new deposits are being developed, including at the bottom of the seas. Humanity is gradually switching to renewable energy - solar, wind, river, energy sea tides. Oil companies, understanding the trends in the development of the energy market, are interested in investing in ecological species extraction of electricity.
Russia's largest oil company, Rosneft, accounts for 40 percent of Russian production. It owns about 15 percent of gas stations in Russian Federation. The country's budget for 20 percent consists of the proceeds of this company.
The state of Brunei, located in the north of the island of Borneo, is one of the smallest (5765 square kilometers), but at the same time the richest country in the world, the basis of the economy is oil production.
Usage
Oil is used to make lipstick and other cosmetic products.
Majority solar panels contain petroleum resins, and black gold is also used to make plastic for photovoltaic cells. But now bioresins and bioplastics are being developed that can replace petroleum products in the process of converting solar energy into electricity.
Polyester, a petroleum-derived product, is used to make wrinkle-resistant clothing. Millions of people wear clothes made from this synthetic material.
Chewing gum is made from petroleum polymers. This makes the product cheap, but at the same time leads to the fact that the chewing gum does not decompose and can contaminate environment. In addition, chewing gum is very difficult to peel off, which is why it is banned in such a creation of American culture as Disneyland.
Aspirin is made from benzene, which is a petroleum derivative.
Nylon, which is used to make tights and stockings, is a thermoplastic that is made from petroleum. Nylon is a raw material for many household items, as well as for the production of parachutes.
In Azerbaijan, in the city of Naftalan, baths are made from oil to treat arthritis.
Oil is also used to make medical alcohol, which is used in the production of medicinal tinctures.