Oil fields of the world: reserves and production volumes. Russian and foreign oil fields
Oil It is called a flammable oily liquid of red-brown or black color with a specific odor. Oil is one of the most important minerals on Earth, as the most commonly used fuels are obtained from it. Usually oil is formed together with another, no less important - natural gas. Therefore, very often these two types of minerals are mined in the same place. Oil can occur at a depth of several tens of meters to 6 kilometers, but most often it is located at a depth of 1-3 km. Natural gas is the gas mixture formed during the decomposition of organic matter. It occurs in the earth's interior in a gaseous state in the form of separate accumulations, in the form of an oil cap of oil and gas fields, and also in a dissolved state (in oil and water).
The most famous oil and gas fields in Russia:
Urengoy natural gas field. This is the world's second largest gas field in terms of reservoir reserves. Gas volumes here exceed 10 trillion cubic meters. This field is located in the Yamalo-Nenets autonomous region Tyumen region of Russia, just south of the Arctic Circle. The name of the deposit was given by the name of the nearby village of Urengoy. After the start of the development of the field, a whole working city has grown here. New Urengoy. The field was discovered in 1966, and gas production began in 1978.
How oil is produced (photo by Maxim Yuryevich Kalinkin)
Tuymazinskoye oil field. This field is located in the Republic of Bashkiria, near the city of Tuimazy. The deposit was discovered in 1937. Oil-bearing layers are located at a depth of 1-1.7 km. The development of the field began in 1944. The Tuymazinskoye field is one of the five largest fields in the world in terms of the amount of oil. The size of the deposit is 40 by 20 kilometers. Thanks to the latest method, the bulk of the recoverable reserves were produced in 20 years. Twice as much oil has been extracted from the Devonian reservoirs as could be recovered in the usual way. However, the reserves are so large that mining continues to this day.
Nakhodka gas field. This natural gas field is located in the Bolshekhetskaya depression in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug. The reserves of the field are estimated at 275.3 billion m 3 of gas. Although the field was discovered quite a long time ago (in 1974), its development began only in 2004.
Shtokman gas condensate field. One of the largest deposits in the world, discovered in 1988. It is located in the central part of the shelf approximately 600 km northeast of Murmansk. Gas reserves are currently estimated at 3.7 trillion m2 of gas. Gas production has not yet begun here, since the significant depth of the mineral and the difficult conditions of development require significant costs and high-tech equipment.
Kovykta field(Kovykta). Natural gas field located in the north Irkutsk region, 450 km northeast of Irkutsk. The deposit is located on a high plateau covered with dark coniferous. It dominates in some part of the territory. In addition, this area is complicated by numerous canyons. Climatic conditions in the area of the deposit are also quite severe. Natural gas reserves are estimated at 1.9 trillion cubic meters of gas and 115 million tons of liquid gas condensate.
Vankor field oil and gas field. Deposit located in the north Krasnoyarsk Territory. Includes the Vankorsky and Severo-Vankorsky sections. The deposit was discovered in 1991. Oil reserves exceed 260 million tons, and gas - about 90 billion m2. The development of the deposit is to start in 2008. It is planned to drill 266 wells here, and the delivery will be carried out through the Eastern oil pipeline.
Shtokman field
Angaro-Lenskoye gas field. A large natural gas field located in the Irkutsk region. Named after the names of large - and Angara, located nearby. The deposit was discovered in early XXI century. Natural gas reserves by preliminary estimates make up more than 1.2 trillion m2.
Samotlor oil field (Samotlor). This is Russia's largest and one of the world's largest oil fields located in the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug, near Nizhnevartovsk near Samotlor. According to experts, oil reserves here amount to 2.7 billion tons. They lie at a depth of 1.6-2.4 km. The deposit was discovered in 1965. Basically, the field was developed in the 80s of the last century. To date, about 2.3 billion tons have already been mined.
Ety-Purovskoye oil field. This is an oil field located in the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, near the city of Noyabrsk. Opened in 1982, development began only in 2003. Oil reserves are about 40 million tons.
Verkh-Tarskoye oil field. Located in the north Novosibirsk region. Oil reserves are about 68 million tons. One of the disadvantages of the field is the lack of necessary communications. The oil produced at this field is distinguished by a small amount of impurities. The deposit was discovered in 1970, development began in 2000.
Number of deposits oil and gas in Russia much bigger. Some of them, discovered in the last century, have already been developed, while the development of others, relatively recently discovered, has not even begun (for example, the Vankor field). In addition, there is reason to believe that not all deposits in the country have been discovered.
DEPOSITS AND DEPOSITS OF OIL AND GAS
AA Bakirov subdivides oil and gas accumulations into two categories: local and regional. He refers to the local
1) deposits of oil and gas;
2) oil and gas fields.
A. A. Bakirov and other researchers subdivide regional accumulations of oil and gas into:
1) oil and gas accumulation zones;
2) oil and gas fields;
3) oil-bearing provinces or belts.
The classification of deposits for the purposes of prospecting and exploration is based on the following features:
1) the ratio of gas, oil and water in them;
trap shape.
Classification of deposits by phase composition
An oil and gas deposit is a natural local (single) accumulation of oil and gas in a trap. An accumulation is formed in that part of the reservoir in which an equilibrium is established between the forces that make oil and gas move in a natural reservoir, and the forces that prevent it.
Gas, oil and water are located in the reservoir zonal:
q gas, as the lightest, occupies the roof part of the natural reservoir, under the cover;
q below the pore space is filled with oil,
q even lower - with water.
According to the predominance of the liquid phase over the gas (or vice versa), deposits are divided into:
q single-phase - oil, gas, gas condensate
q two-phase - gas and oil, oil and gas.
According to the phase relationships of the hydrocarbons contained in the deposit, 6 types of accumulations are distinguished:
gas,
gas condensate,
oil and gas condensate,
oil and gas,
gas and oil,
oil.
gas deposit(Fig. 7.1) contains mainly methane and its homologues (ethane, propane, etc.).
Rice. 7.1. Scheme of gas deposits
In a number of regions, gas deposits, in addition to hydrocarbon components, contain hydrogen sulfide, carbon dioxide, nitrogen, helium, as well as small amounts of inert gases (argon, neon, krypton).
When visually inspecting the core of the productive horizons of oil fields, one can see smudges and inclusions of oil in the pores and cracks of the rock. On clean gas fields the core from the productive strata does not differ from the samples taken from the overlying or underlying deposits. They can be distinguished only immediately after lifting from the well by the smell of gasoline, which quickly disappears and after a short period of time the core no longer carries any traces of hydrocarbons. In this regard, the drilling of wells in gas-bearing areas must be under constant geological control and must be accompanied by gas logging.
Gas condensate deposits(Fig. 7.2) are accumulations of fatty gas and heavier hydrocarbons dissolved in it (C 5 H 12 and above).
Rice. 7.2. Scheme of gas condensate deposit
Their concentration at high altitude the deposit increases down the section of the productive strata.
Examples include such major gas condensate fields as Astrakhanskoye, Vuktylskoye, Shurtanskoye, Zapadno-Krestishinskoye, and Yablonevskoye. The gas fractions of these deposits, in addition to hydrocarbons, also contain the most valuable associated components. Thus, in addition to methane (40–50%) and heavy hydrocarbons (10–13%), the gas composition of the Astrakhan field contains 22–23% hydrogen sulfide and 20–25% carbon dioxide. The content of stable condensate in the hydrocarbon gas of the same Astrakhan field, according to available data, varies over the area from 130 to 350 cm 3 /m 3 .
When calculating reserves, along with hydrocarbon gas and condensate, these components must also be taken into account.
Oil and gas condensate deposits(Fig. 7.3) differ from the previous ones by the presence of liquid hydrocarbons in the lower part of the productive stratum, which are light oil.
Rice. 7.3. Scheme of oil and gas condensate deposit
An example is the Karachaganak field. The height of the massive deposit in this field exceeds 1.5 km. From top to bottom, the amount of condensate gradually increases and about 200 m of the lower part of the productive stratum is filled with oil.
Oil and gas deposit contains an accumulation of gas underlain by oil (over the entire area or in part), the geological reserves of which do not exceed half of the total hydrocarbon reserves of the deposit as a whole. The predominant gas is usually fatty, i.e. in addition to methane, it contains a certain amount of heavy hydrocarbons.
Depending on the type of reservoir and the nature of the filling of the trap, the oil part may look like either an oil rim or an oil cushion (Fig. 7.4).
Rice. 7.4. Diagram of an oil and gas deposit
If a deposit is found in a reservoir , then the oil part of the deposit will be located along the periphery of the trap, and in this case there are continuous external and internal oil-bearing contours and external and internal gas-bearing contours. Within the inner gas-bearing contour, the wells penetrate the pure gas part of the deposit, between the outer and inner gas-bearing contours – the gas-and-oil part, and outside the outer gas-bearing contour – the purely oil or water-oil part of the deposit.
Due to geological (reservoir replacement) or hydrodynamic (regional water head) reasons, an oil rim can be shifted towards better reservoirs or lower water pressure and appear as a one-sided rim .
In a massive and incomplete reservoir, the oil part in the form of an oil cushion is located throughout the entire part of the trap or, as in previous case, can be partially shifted to its periphery .
The formation of the rim can occur due to the displacement of oil by the gas that entered the trap after the formation of the oil deposit. An indicator of this origin of the deposit is the presence of residual, associated oil throughout the section of the productive strata. The presence of an oil rim may also be due to the flow of oil into the trap after the formation of a gas deposit. In this case, no traces of oil are found in the gas-saturated part of the formation.
Different ratios of the gas and oil parts of the deposit are clearly seen in the Urengoy field as an example. This field in the Cenomanian deposits contains a purely gas reservoir, in the Lower Cretaceous gas condensate, oil and gas condensate deposits, and in the Callovian-Oxfordian - oil. In some productive horizons, oil underlies the entire gas condensate reservoir. In others, the oil rim is displaced to the northern periclinal part of the structure.
Oil and gas deposit is an oil accumulation with a gas cap (Fig. 7.5) .
Rice. 7.5. Oil and gas deposit
Geological oil reserves exceed half of the total hydrocarbon reserves of the deposit. This type of deposits is found in many oil and gas provinces of the world.
The formation of a gas cap can occur either due to the release of gas from oil in connection with the raising of the trap to final stages its development and, consequently, a decrease in reservoir pressure, or as a result of gas inflow after the formation of an oil deposit.
oil deposit contains an accumulation of oil with gas dissolved in it (Fig. 7.6) .
Rice. 7.6. oil deposit
The phase relations of hydrocarbons in deposits of all types, except for purely gas ones, are determined by the thermobaric conditions of occurrence. In the process of development, these conditions change, the balance of the natural system is disturbed. So, in the process of developing an oil deposit in a natural regime, the reservoir pressure decreases, and if it becomes lower than the saturation pressure, then free gas is released in the reservoir and a gas cap is formed; in the gas condensate reservoir. on the contrary, liquid hydrocarbons precipitate. In other words, when the reservoir is affected, its equilibrium state changes and at some stage it passes into a new quality.
The transition of the natural system under consideration to a new qualitative state depends, on the one hand, on the nature of its interrelations with natural systems higher hierarchical levels (regional background), on the other hand, on the degree of technogenic impact on it.
According to the complexity of the geological structure of productive horizons, deposits are divided into two main groups:
A) simple structure - productive horizons are characterized by a relative consistency of lithological composition, reservoir properties and productivity throughout the entire volume of the deposit;
b) complex structure - divided by tectonic disturbances into a number of isolated blocks and zones, or deposits with a variable nature of productive horizons.
Beneath the oil and gas field is understood as a set of deposits confined geographically to one area and reduced to a favorable tectonic structure. The term field is not a place where oil or gas was born, but a place where, in the process of migration, oil or gas met an impenetrable trap on its way. It would be correct to name not an oil field, but an oil accumulation.
An oil or gas field may have from one to several deposits. The concepts of deposit and deposit are equivalent, if there is only one deposit in one area, such a deposit is called single layer. A field that has deposits in layers (horizons) of different stratigraphic affiliation is commonly called multilayer.
Depending on the phase state and the basic composition of hydrocarbon compounds in the subsoil, oil and gas deposits are divided into:
· oil, containing only oil, varying degrees saturated with gas ;
· gas if it contains only gas deposits consisting of more than 90% methane,
· gas and oil And oil and gas(two-phase).
In gas-oil deposits, the main part in volume is oil and the smaller part is gas, in oil and gas deposits the gas cap exceeds the volume of the oil part. Oil and gas deposits also include deposits with an extremely insignificant oil part in terms of volume - the oil rim. Gas condensate oil and oil and gas condensate differ from each other in that in the first - the main oil part in terms of volume, and in the second - gas condensate.
TO gas condensate include such deposits, from which, when the pressure drops to atmospheric, a liquid phase is released - condensate.
Fig.5. oil deposits
The largest oil field peace is Ghawar in Saudi Arabia , then Cantarell in Mexico, in 3rd place is the Safaniya-Khafji field in Saudi Arabia. On the territory of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) there are 3 deposits that are among the 10 largest on the planet - these are Samotlor (Russia, Western Siberia), Aziri-Chirag-Guneshli (Azerbaijan), Priobskoye (Russia, Western Siberia).
Oil fields in Russia are located on the territory of 37 constituent entities of the Russian Federation, but they are mainly concentrated in Western Siberia,
Ural-Volga region and in the European North. Most high degree development of explored reserves in the Ural (85%), Volga (92%), North Caucasus (89%) regions and Sakhalin region (95%).
In our country, there are so-called "old" areas of oil production, such as, for example, North Caucasus, where development is carried out, mainly by small companies. And there are, on the contrary, new oil regions, where mainly large VIOCs operate, having enough funds for full-scale geological exploration and creating all the necessary infrastructure.
The largest gas field peace is North-South Pars in Qatar, slightly inferior to it in terms of reserves are Heinswil (USA) and Urengoyskoye (Russia, Western Siberia). Of the 10 largest on the planet, 5 are located in Russia.
Gas fields in Russia are mainly concentrated in Western Siberia, the Ural-Volga region and in the European North.
Oil fields The Udmurt Republic are distinguished by a complex geological structure. The main oil reserves are confined to carbonate reservoirs with high dissection, zonal heterogeneity and chaotic fracturing. Productive deposits are composed of compacted reservoirs with low productivity. Most of the fields have gas caps and extensive oil-water zones, which greatly complicates their development in fractured reservoir conditions.
Oil is one of the most valuable minerals on our planet. Having formed several million years ago, it is stored in the bowels of the Earth, sometimes in hard-to-reach places, giving mankind the opportunity to use it as a fuel and energy resource.
Here is a map of oil and gas fields in Russia online.
Natural reservoirs of oil usually contain gas, which is the cheapest type of fuel.
Russia is among the top ten countries - leaders in the presence and production of oil reserves. The number of explored deposits is about two thousand, however, some of them are still inefficient for production, but the largest ones are actively used.
Oil and gas fields on the map of Russia
If you look at the map of oil and gas fields, you can see that a significant part of the oil and gas basins is located in Western Siberia, on Far East and in the Arctic. On the Internet you can find many maps, including online, which show all the main deposits.
You can download such a map to your phone or tablet and use it freely in the future.
The largest oil and gas fields are Priobskoye, Fedorovskoye, Samotlorskoye, Lyantorskoye and Romashkinskoye.
They were developed back in the 70-80s of the last century, but so far these deposits are producing 15-20 thousand tons per day.
Interestingly, four of them are located in the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug, and entire cities, such as Nizhnevartovsk, gradually grew out of settlements intended for oil workers.
Moreover, many companies engaged in oil production prefer to combine it with refining and delivery of customers, and especially large ones finance geological research on their own.
Three more large maps are available for enlargement and download
Thus, a map of oil and gas fields shows that there are several oil production sites near the cities of Nizhnevartovsk and Surgut, processing plants are also concentrated there, and contracts for the sale and supply of minerals are concluded.
The richest gas fields are also concentrated in Western Siberia. The top five include: Yamburgskoye, Leningradskoye, Urengoyskoye, Rusanovskoye and Bovanenkovskoye. Their total volume is estimated at more than 17 trillion cubic meters, which will make it possible to long years use these fields even while maintaining the current level of production.
The extraction of gas and oil in the Arctic is a complex and vital task for Russia, since the produced hydrocarbons are not only used for the functioning of their own industry, but are also actively sold to other states, replenishing the budget.
The main problem of the northern deposits is the lack of communications, as well as climatic conditions. harsh conditions. As evidenced by the map of oil and gas fields in Russia, part of the deposits is located in the sea, most year covered with ice, which further complicates the process. However, the use modern technologies allows exploration of the Arctic territory, and perhaps in the near future the development of oil and gas in the Arctic will become more accessible. Today, it is predominantly the Sakhalin region.
April 16th, 2014A new giant oil field has been discovered in Russia. Minister of Natural Resources Sergey Donskoy told Business FM about this. It's about about the Veliky deposit in the Astrakhan region.
“The reserves of the field are unprecedented - about 300 million tons of oil and 90 billion cubic meters of gas. This discovery confirms the high prospects of the Astrakhan region in terms of such major discoveries,” the minister explained.
It is noteworthy that the previous major discovery was also made in the Astrakhan region. In 2006, LUKOIL geologists discovered the Filanovsky field on the Caspian shelf with recoverable reserves of more than 150 million tons of oil.
As for the Velikoye deposit, the AFB company will probably be engaged in its development. The oilman has been working in the Astrakhan region for several years and made another major discovery there two years ago. Then the company discovered 140 million tons of oil in the neighboring Tambov area.
“Actually, the field is not easy. He has a difficult geological structure, but in the land part of the Astrakhan region, this is the first deposit with virtually no hydrogen sulfide impurities. That is, if we confirm the declared figures, then economically its development will be extremely profitable and more than profitable,” Vladimir Kudinov, chief geologist of AFB, said then.
The largest shareholder of the oil company is Vitaly Vantsev, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Vnukovo Airport. A few years ago, he invested more than $100 million in an oil company, and this investment has clearly paid off.
“Based on the reserves, the cost of the Velikoye deposit can be estimated at $0.9-1.1 billion,” Alexey Kokin, an analyst at Uralsib Capital, calculated. “Now the company and the investor have a pleasant choice - to develop the project on their own or to attract a partner.” According to the expert, given the lack of large deposits on land, all the major players in the industry will certainly show interest in participating in the project. The most likely partners are Rosneft and LUKOIL, whose assets are located in neighboring regions.
In Russia, there has been no discovery of large deposits for quite a long time. On land, the last large open field was Vankor, which was discovered by geologists in 1988. The field is being developed by Rosneft, its reserves exceed 500 million tons of "black gold". Two years ago, the state sold licenses for what were considered the last large deposits Boat, Shpilman and Imilor. The assets were acquired by Rosneft, Surgutneftegaz and LUKOIL, respectively. Now only deposits with a volume of up to 20 million tons remain in the undistributed fund.
And a little more interesting for you about oil:
Oil is a combustible liquid, which is a complex mixture of hydrocarbons. different types oils differ significantly in chemical and physical properties: in nature, it is presented both in the form of black bituminous asphalt and in the form of light volatile varieties. Contrary to the established expression " black gold”, oil is distinguished by a variety of colors - it can be black, brown, cherry, green, amber, yellow. Its smell can also be completely different - from pleasant and even fragrant to disgustingly sulphurous.
Crude oil contains about 1000 components. Alkanes, cycloalkanes and various aromatic hydrocarbons predominate among them. Other organic compounds, present in oil, contain nitrogen, oxygen, sulfur or a small amount of metals - iron, nickel, copper and vanadium. By chemical composition oil is very similar to coal- in it, too, the main constituent component is carbon. Therefore, oil and gas, along with coal, peat by the Icelanders, scientists refer to one class of fossils - caustobioliths.
The deposits of this most valuable mineral are located at a depth of tens of meters to 5-6 km. The origin of oil is still hotly debated. Most scientists are supporters of the biogenic theory, according to which oil was formed from the remains of living organisms - mostly plankton. The rest accumulated at the bottom water basins, then compacted and dehydrated. In conditions limited access oxygen, various biochemical processes proceeded in them. The layer of residues then descended to a depth where oil formation occurred under conditions of high temperature and pressure. This theory of the appearance of oil is called "biogenic". However, it is not the only explanation for the emergence of this invaluable resource.
Quite a few scientists and specialists have a different opinion on this issue, speaking as supporters of the theory of "abiogenic synthesis". Even D. I. Mendeleev suggested that oil is formed from deep fluids - liquid and gaseous components of magma or solutions circulating in the earth's depths, saturated with gases. He believed that during the processes of mountain building, water seeps down through cracks that cut through the earth's crust. Meeting in the depths with iron carbides, water reacts with them under the influence of high temperatures and pressure. This reaction produces iron oxides and hydrocarbons such as ethane. Along the same faults, fluids saturated with hydrocarbons rise to the upper layers of the crust and fill the solid reservoir rocks. This is how oil and gas fields are formed.
Geologists subsequently found out that deposits are often formed in the zone of deep faults - this confirms Mendeleev's hypothesis. But the most serious argument in favor of the abiogenic theory was the discovery in 1988 of the deposit " White Tiger". This deposit on the sea shelf of Vietnam is located at a depth of more than 3 km not in the thickness of sedimentary rocks, but in a granite "foundation". The drilled well immediately gushed out, and oil still flows from it with good pressure. The presence of living organisms or plankton from which oil could be formed is not possible in such an environment. Since oil can accumulate in solid crystalline rocks, in which there are no organic residues, the abiogenic theory seems to be quite logical.
The question of the origin of oil is not an abstract scientific problem. It is important to all of us. If organic synthesis is still going on in the bowels of the earth, there is hope for the discovery of more and more oil deposits. If she has only organic origin, the outlook is bleak. It is believed that if the current level of consumption is maintained and oil is extracted from readily available sources, it will end in the second half of this century. However, with the development of technology, oil will be able to be extracted from where it simply could not be extracted from before - for example, from natural bitumen, the reserves of which amount to 600 billion tons, which is more than four times the proven conventional oil reserves.
Why is oil so important to us? Due to its high energy intensity and transportability, it has served as the most important energy source in the world since the middle of the 20th century. Up to 84% of the volume extracted today goes to the production of fuel. The remaining 16% are used as raw materials for processing into plastics, solvents, fertilizers, medicines and other products, without which modern civilization is simply impossible. Even if in the distant future oil loses its priority role as a fuel, its value will not decrease. Mankind still cannot do without items, an essential component in the manufacture of which is oil. Thus, with the development of alternative and renewable energy sources, everything more oil will be spent on the needs of the petrochemical industry.
And a dozen more interesting facts about oil:
1. The word oil means - "something expelled (by the earth)"
The word oil came into Russian from Turkish (from the word neft), which came from the Persian naft, and which in turn was borrowed from the Semitic languages. The Akkadian (Assyrian) word nptn "oil" comes from the Semitic verb root npt with initial value“spew, spew out” (Arabic naft, nafta - “spewed out, vomited out”).
There are other versions of the meaning of the word oil. For example, according to some sources, the word oil comes from the Akkadian napatum, which means "flare, ignite," according to others - from the ancient Iranian naft, meaning "something wet, liquid."
But, for example, the Chinese, the first, by the way, drilled oil well As far back as 347 AD, they called and still call oil - shi yow, which literally means "mountain oil".
The 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 the Latin oleum (oil).
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 far from the oil industry often sin. In fact, there are no oil lakes in the bowels of the earth. Earth's crust folded rocks various mineral composition and various densities. 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 lamp 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 love 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 indispensable 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 kerosene, obtained from the oil refining process, and the discovery of its safe use as a source of lighting, the demand for whale oil began to decline sharply. The whaling fleet of the United States, for example, consisted of 735 ships in 1846, and by 1879 there were only 39 of them. Eventually, 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 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 largest in the world 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:
Saudi Aramco is the most profitable company on the planet. It does not fully disclose its financials, but a rough estimate of its net income is $200 billion a year on annual revenues in excess of $350 billion. Oil Minister Ali Al-Naimi told reporters last year that the average A barrel of oil in Saudi Arabia is $2. This barrel of oil is sold for $130. If you pass the same barrel of oil through an integrated petrochemical plant, it will easily bring in $500 in revenue.