Facts about Petroleum

Formation of petroleum occurs in a variety of mostly endothermic reactions in high temperature and/or pressure.

Petroleum also makes up 40 percenr of total energy consumption in the United States, but is responsible for only 2 percent of electricity generation.

Each crude oil has unique molecular characteristics which are understood by the use of crude oil assay analysis in petroleum laboratories.

Using pressure and heat, long chain polymers of hydrogen, oxygen, and carbon decompose into short-chain petroleum hydrocarbons.

The future of petroleum as a fuel remains somewhat controversial.

After the well has been located, various methods are used to recover the petroleum.

The idea of abiogenic petroleum origin was championed in the Western world by astronomer Thomas Gold based on thoughts from Russia, mainly on studies of Nikolai Kudryavtsev.

Petroleum is used mostly, by volume, for producing fuel oil and gasoline (petrol), both important "primary energy" sources.

USA Today newspaper (2004) reports that there are 40 years of petroleum left in the ground.

Petroleum's worth as a portable, dense energy source powering the vast majority of vehicles and as the base of many industrial chemicals makes it one of the world's most important commodities.

Petroleum, in some form or other, is not a substance new in the world's history.

The modern history of petroleum began in 1846 with the discovery of the process of refining kerosene from coal by Atlantic Canada's Abraham Pineo Gesner.

Petroleum is also the raw material for many chemical products, including solvents, fertilizers, pesticides, and plastics; the 16 percent not used for energy production is converted into these other materials.

Petroleum was known as burning water in Japan in the seventh century.

Incomplete combustion of petroleum or gasoline results in emission of poisonous gases such as carbon monoxide and/or nitric oxide.

Some would argue that because the total amount of petroleum is finite, the dire predictions of the 1970s have merely been postponed.

Ancient Persian tablets indicate the medicinal and lighting uses of petroleum in the upper levels of their society.

The chemical structure of petroleum is composed of hydrocarbon chains of different lengths.

The most common method of obtaining petroleum is extracting it from oil wells found in oil fields.

Petroleum was first distilled by Muslim chemists in the ninth century, producing chemicals such as kerosene.

Thermophilic, rock-dwelling microbial life-forms are proposed to be in part responsible for the biomarkers found in petroleum.

Known reserves of petroleum are typically estimated at around 1.2 trillion barrels without oil sands , or 3.74 trillion barrels with oil sands However, oil production from oil sands is currently severely limited.

An alternative might be the emergence of a new prophet, with the spiritual insight that could bring about a new, unified, world civilization, balancing the strengths of each of the four civilizations.

Petroleum is found in porous rock formations in the upper strata of some areas of the Earth's crust.

Sasol in South Africa uses coal as a feedstock, and produces a variety of synthetic petroleum products.