Oil and Gas

Ages ago sea covered most of what is land today. The plants and small creatures when died sank to the bottom of the sea. Over the years with the pressure from the earths crust, these turned to hydrocarbons. These are trapped in between the tiny holes in the rocks underneath the sea.

 Natural gas is a mixture of light hydrocarbons including methane, ethane, propane, butane, and pentane. Other compounds found in natural gas include carbon dioxide, helium, hydrogen sulphide, and nitrogen. This gas is lighter than air and is highly flammable, made up mainly of a gas called methane.

 Natural gas is the cleanest burning fossil fuel which when burnt gives off less carbon dioxide than oil or coal, virtually no sulphur dioxide, and only small amounts of nitrous oxides. Coal and oil contain proportionally more carbon than natural gas, therefore giving off more carbon dioxide per unit of energy produced. Natural gas gives off 50% of the carbon dioxide released by coal and 25% less carbon dioxide than oil, for the same amount of energy produced.

 To find oil and natural gas, companies drill through the earth to the deposits deep below the surface. The oil and natural gas are then pumped from below the ground by oil rigs. They then usually travel through pipelines.

 At oil refineries, crude oil is split into various types of products by heating the thick black oil. The products include gasoline, diesel fuel, aviation fuel, home heating oil, oil for ships, and oil to burn in power plants to make electricity. Oil is used for transportationcars, airplanes, trucks, buses, and motorcycles.

Advantages of Natural Gas

Burns clean compared to cola, oil (less polluting) 70% less carbon dioxide compared to other fossil fuels Helps improve quality of air and water (not a pollutant) Does not produce ashes after energy release Has high heating value of 24,000 Btu per pound Inexpensive compared to coal No odor until added

Disadvantages of Natural Gas

Not a renewable source Finite resource trapped in the earth (some experts disagree) Inability to recover all in-place gas from a producible deposit because of unfavorable economics and lack of technology (it costs more to recover the remaining natural gas because of flow, access, etc.)

Advantages of Crude Oil

Oil is one of the most abundant energy resources Liquid form of oil makes it easy to transport and use Oil has high heating value Relatively inexpensive No new technology needed to use

Disadvantages of Crude Oil

Oil burning leads to carbon emissions Finite resources (some disagree) Oil recovery processes not efficient enough technology needs to be developed to provide better yields Oil drilling endangers the environment and ecosystem Oil transportation (by ship) can lead to spills, causing environmental and ecological damage