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1. Oil has played a huge role throughout the history of mankind: it is not without reason that it is called " black gold". We have collected some interesting facts about oil that everyone will benefit from knowing.
2. There are interesting versions explaining the origin of oil. The most popular of them claims that oil was formed over tens of millions of years from the remains of living organisms that once inhabited our planet.
3. Probably the first people to extract oil were the ancient Egyptians, who used a valuable resource in the construction of housing as a binder. But the first oil rig was created by the Chinese back in the 4th century AD. Instead of a modern auger, the Chinese used bamboo trunks through which oil was released under pressure.
4. In ancient Babylon, bitumen and tar, products of oil refining, were used to build buildings and roads. And the Egyptians and Greeks used it to make fuel for the first primitive lamps.
5. Another interesting use of oil was "Greek fire". It was used in the Byzantine Empire as a weapon because it was very difficult to extinguish it. The secret of this fire was that it was based on a mixture of oil products with combustible substances, so all attempts to extinguish it with water were in vain.
6. In the middle of the 19th century, the increased demand for oil literally saved the life of the whales. How? Whale oil at that time was an invaluable product. It was used to make candles, medicines, cosmetics, and most importantly, all lighting lamps worked on it. That is why whale hunting was carried out on an unthinkable scale, which led to their almost complete extinction. Fortunately, in the 50s, in the process of distilling oil, a cheap and safe material was discovered - kerosene. It was he who replaced the whale oil, which saved the whale population.
7. Oil is the real queen of the world economy. It would seem, why does everyone react so much to fluctuations in its price? After all, if the average citizen prefers a bicycle to a car, then what does he care about changes in the cost of a barrel of oil? In fact, oil is not only used in the entire transportation system, but is also required for some of the chemical components that make up almost all consumer products. That is why even a tenth of a dollar change in price affects each of us and affects the entire world economy.
8. Why is oil measured in barrels, and, for example, not in liters, which are more familiar to us? The history of the barrel began in 1866 in the United States, when several entrepreneurs united to transport and sell oil. To save on oil containers, they bought already used 42-gallon or 159-liter barrels that were intended to carry oil, wine, and other liquid goods. It was believed that this size is optimal for loading into railway cars. Over time, the volume of 159 liters was approved as a common unit of measure for oil. But why is the unit of measurement called exactly barrel? It's simple: in English barrel is a barrel.
9 The Oil Spill Is Real ecological catastrophy and endangering animals. The fact is that when oil gets on the plumage of birds or the hair of mammals, it creates a film that prevents air from being retained between the feathers or hairs of animals. Deprived of thermal insulation, animals die from hypothermia. It is believed that if the body of an animal is half covered with oil, it can no longer be saved.
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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 with the original meaning "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, who, by the way, were the first to drill an oil well back in 347 AD, 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(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, micro-organisms inhabiting coastal sea waters - plankton, 90% of which is phytoplankton - served as the source material for the formation of oil.
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 composed of rocks of various mineral composition and 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 ships. 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.
During the 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 or unpleasant odors. 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). This unique property makes whale oil 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 a very cheap product that was used as a lice treatment or as a solvent to clean greasy stains from fabrics. 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 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?
Forbes magazine knows this. 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.
While most of the oil is used to propel different kind transport, yet part of it goes to heating needs and some of it to the production of chemical components that are used in almost all consumer products sold in stores today.
And although at first the rise in oil prices may not lead to an increase in consumer goods prices (for various reasons), nevertheless, 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 complete exhaustion existing oil reserves looks rather vague and very distant, in addition to it there is a more real and more immediate threat. This threat lies in the inelastic demand for oil. The inelastic demand for oil means that a relatively small drop in production could be the reason for a sharp rise in the price of oil. 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 oil production technologies, involvement in the development of unconventional hard-to-recover oil reserves (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. So far, the trend of the global oil industry's transition from the production of light oil to the production of heavier and more difficult oil is clearly visible so far.
World's First Oil Production: In 327, Chinese engineers used bamboo pipes to drill 240 meters below the surface of the earth and extract the first drops of oil. As Carnegie clarifies, at the time, oil was called "burning water" and was used to vaporize sea water and salt production. World's First Oil Production: In 327, Chinese engineers used bamboo pipes to drill 240 meters below the surface of the earth and extract the first drops of oil. At the time, oil was called "burning water" and was used to evaporate seawater and produce salt, Carnegie clarifies.
World's First Development of a Field from a Platform: The first field developed from a platform was just offshore. In 1891, workers from the Riley and Bankers Oil Company were mining on the Great Lake of St. Mary from a wooden platform. The lake is located 70 miles west of Columbus, Ohio.
World's Deepest Platform Well: We know the answer to this question only too well. In September 2009, Transocean's Deepwater Horizon well reached a depth of one meter, becoming the deepest in the world. This record did not last long, as the Deepwater Horizion platform exploded just six months later. World's Deepest Platform Well: We know the answer to this question only too well. In September 2009, Transocean's Deepwater Horizon well reached a depth of one meter, becoming the deepest in the world. This record did not last long, as the Deepwater Horizion platform exploded just six months later.
World's Oldest Working Oil Well: I wonder if workers in Trustville, Pennsylvania could have imagined that their work would live on 150 years from now? Well McClintock 1 began production in August 1861 and is still in operation. Previously, up to 50 barrels per day were produced from the well, but now the production is about 12 barrels per month. World's Oldest Working Oil Well: I wonder if workers in Trustville, Pennsylvania could have imagined that their work would live on 150 years from now? Well McClintock 1 began production in August 1861 and is still in operation. Previously, up to 50 barrels per day were produced from the well, but now the production is about 12 barrels per month.
World's Largest Offshore Oil Field: Measuring 50 kilometers by 15 kilometers, the Safaniya field in Saudi Arabia is the world's largest offshore field. Safania, discovered in 1951, has about 37 billion barrels of oil and 151 billion cubic meters of gas. This amount of oil is enough to satisfy US demands for almost 5 years. World's Largest Offshore Oil Field: Measuring 50 kilometers by 15 kilometers, the Safaniya field in Saudi Arabia is the world's largest offshore field. Safania, discovered in 1951, has about 37 billion barrels of oil and 151 billion cubic meters of gas. This amount of oil is enough to satisfy US demands for almost 5 years.
World's Largest Offshore Gas Field: At 9,700 square meters, the South Pars/North Dome field in the Persian Gulf is the world's largest offshore gas field. Located on the territory of Iran and Qatar at a depth of almost 3,000 meters below the seabed, the field has 51 trillion tons of gas. World's Largest Offshore Gas Field: At 9,700 square meters, the South Pars/North Dome field in the Persian Gulf is the world's largest offshore gas field. Located on the territory of Iran and Qatar at a depth of almost 3,000 meters below the seabed, the field has 51 trillion tons of gas.
The Biggest Explosion in History: The Macondo well, which was drilled from the Deepwater Horizon platform, and its aftermath, spilled approximately 4.9 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. The Biggest Explosion in History: The Macondo well, which was drilled from the Deepwater Horizon platform, and its aftermath, spilled approximately 4.9 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.
The world's largest floating oil production, storage and offloading system: ExxonMobil's Kizomba A system has a capacity of 2.2 million barrels of oil, making it the largest in the world. The $800 million system is currently in use off the coast of Angola. The world's largest floating oil production, storage and offloading system: ExxonMobil's Kizomba A system has a capacity of 2.2 million barrels of oil, making it the largest in the world. The $800 million system is currently in use off the coast of Angola.
The world's smallest floating oil production, storage and offloading system: southeastern off the coast of Australia is the Roc Oil system, which has a capacity of barrels of oil per day. The world's smallest floating oil production, storage and offloading system: Off the southeast coast of Australia, the Roc Oil system has a capacity of barrels of oil per day.
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 did more damage environment than everything else in the world.
Gasoline prices in the US are twice as low as those in the EU.
America gets more oil from Canada and Mexico than from all countries in the Middle East combined.
The Norwegian oil company Statoil put one of its platforms up for sale with the following ad: "For sale a well maintained platform with 20 bedrooms that offer panoramic sea views. There is also enough space for a helicopter."
The average annual salary for an oil rig worker was around $100,000 in 2011.
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.
Beverly Hills High School in California has 19 oil wells on its campus. The school earns about US$300,000 a year.
Diesel engines were named after their inventor, not the fuel. In fact, some of the first diesel engines ran on peanut butter.
The United States accounts for almost half of the world's oil consumption.
In Turkmenistan, every driver receives 120 free liters of gasoline per month.
Russia produces about 1 million barrels more oil daily than Saudi Arabia.
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.
According to World Organization health, diesel fuel is more carcinogenic than cigarettes.
Norway has some of the highest gasoline prices in the world. The proceeds are used to provide free education and improving infrastructure.
Even if all US corn and soybean production were concentrated in biofuel production, this would only satisfy about 10% of fuel demand.
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.
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 Iraq's oil reserves.
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.
Since there was a problem in remote areas of Australia with local Aborigines who snorted gasoline to achieve a state of euphoria, Opal brand gasoline (virtually devoid of chemical impurities) began to be used in the country.
Oil drilling involves the process of drilling a well and pumping air into it. After the oil layer is reached, the oil begins to literally gush into the sky.
Over the past 25 years, there have been nearly two dozen oil spills in the US.
Venezuela has the largest oil reserves in the world, estimated at almost 300 billion barrels. The US ranks 10th with 33 billion barrels.
Oil has always been important to civilization. Ancient cultures used it to bond materials and also as a waterproof sealant.
Black gold is the leading factor in the global economy. Many argue about its origin and there is no unequivocal understanding. In a selection of interesting facts about oil, we will touch on all these issues.
From the surface to the depths
The ancients referred to oil as "something expelled by the earth." This liquid was thought to be the urine of whales. The most probable of all versions of the birth of oil is the theory of organic origin. She talks about the formation of a fossil from decomposed living organisms.
For the first time, the inhabitants of the Middle East discovered oil, or rather oil bitumen, around the 6th millennium BC in Mesopotamia. The fossil was collected by hand. It quickly found application in construction.
The first structure that can be called an oil well was made in 347 AD by the Chinese. Bamboo stalks were used to extract black gold. The depth of the wells reached 24 meters.
According to the facts about oil, stated by Herodotus, in the 3rd millennium BC. they have already learned how to extract it from the bowels of the Earth. Wells were dug for this. A special lever device "crane" was used. At one end of the mechanism, a skin bag was fixed and immersed in a well. The extracted liquid was poured into special containers, where it was stratified.
Application in antiquity
Oil was used mainly for the construction and laying of roads. Bitumen was added to building mixtures for bonding. There is historical information about the presence of such mixtures during the construction of the walls of Babylon, the Gardens of Babylon, the Great Wall of China.
Since time immemorial, people have known about such an interesting fact about oil as the water resistance of the material. Due to this property, bitumen is widely used in the manufacture of boats and kitchen utensils. In everyday life, liquid oil was used to make lamps. Such fuel was extremely rare, animal fat and oil were more often used.
The ancients used oil-based weapons In 677, the Byzantines, fighting the Persians, launched most powerful weapon based on oil. It represented copper pipe from which flames burst. There is also earlier evidence of the use of oil for military purposes by the Egyptians and Chinese.
Many sources testify to the use of flammable liquid in medicine. The Sumerians talked about the benefits in the treatment of abscesses and joints. They were echoed by Hippocrates, adding prescriptions for medicines for eye diseases. Interestingly, the substance was also used for embalming.
industrial scale
The first well of modern type was drilled in the territory Russian Empire. In 1846, the head of the administration of the Transcaucasian Territory wrote about the need to deepen the wells. Two years later, a well 21 meters deep was dug in the Baku region. In the USA, such depths were reached only in 1859.
In the early 60s of the 19th century, foreign geologists provide their Russian colleagues with facts about the futility of oil production. The reality is this: Russia then accounted for half of the world's stock of strategic raw materials, which irritated foreigners. According to some reports, the Russian authorities have imposed a ban on this "unpromising occupation." But the first oil gusher was obtained in Russia from a depth of 2000 meters, contrary to the current legislation. By the beginning of the 20th century, the United States occupied the leading position in the extraction of black gold.
Interestingly, the creation of the first electric light bulb initially had a negative impact on the development of the oil industry. However, the invention of the first gasoline cars, airplanes, the widespread electrification of cities quickly put everything in its place.
In 1914 the First World War. One of its reasons is to gain control over the oil fields.
In 1969, a monument to the discoverers of oil in Tatarstan was erected as historical evidence of the construction of the first Bashkir oil rig.
Destroyer and Savior
Often in the media you can find information about the consequences of an oil spill from damaged derricks, tankers, pipelines. This leads to the destruction of all life that gets in the way of the spilled liquid. The largest environmental disaster occurred in 1991 in the Persian Gulf. About 4 million barrels of oil were spilled.
Under the oil film are birds, mammals, marine fauna. Surprisingly, the extraction of black gold saved the whales from complete extermination.
In the 19th century, sperm whale oil was widely used in lighting lamps, candles, for making medical preparations, hygiene products. They covered photographs and lubricated watch mechanisms. Whaling flourished. With the advent of kerosene, the need for whale oil almost completely disappeared and hunting was carried out on a smaller scale. Currently, fat is used only for space research.
Oil production has given rise to a collection of interesting facts, the origins of which are hidden in the ruins of ancient civilizations. Now, we know a little more about this substance. Scientists have yet to figure out exactly how oil is formed.
To appreciate the role oil plays in our lives, we recommend for review the film “What will happen if oil disappears?”
