Heyyoo everyone! This week, we’ll be looking at a resource which I think cannot be excluded from our blog since it is underpins consumerism. This also comes aptly after last week’s lecture on marine pollution and oil spills 😉
Crude oil is used in nearly all aspects of our lives. It is an indispensable resource for sustaining our modern way of life.
The industry covers (nearly) everything we consume (EIA, 2020; Murty, 2020). It is present in:
- Transportation – as fuel for commercial aviation, gasoline for road transport, bunker fuels for ships etc (which account for ¾ of global oil consumption)
- Agriculture – to manufacture fertilisers, pesticides and to power machinery
- Production of chemicals
- Processing of metals and minerals
- Electricity and heating to power and warm our homes, offices and buildings
- As a raw material to manufacture a myriad of intermediate and end-use products like plastics, solvents and polyurethane
- And so on…
Basics first – what exactly is crude oil?
Simply put, crude oil is a mixture of hydrocarbons which is found as a liquid in underground geologic formations and remains in that state when brought to the surface (EIA, 2019). It is then separated at petroleum refiners to produce a range of petroleum products for our usage (HSRC/S&SW, 2003). The terms (crude) oil and petroleum are often synonymous (EIA, 2019).
Why are we so reliant on oil? In the mid 20th century, oil replaced coal and started to become an instrumental way of powering modern life (BBC, n.d.; Le Billon, 2017). Oil revolutionised manufacturing as it was a cost-efficient substitute for human labour. It increased the economies of scale, empowering the exponential output of food, raw materials and other goods (Le Billon, 2017). This is because oil has a greater “energy density”, where it contains double the energy of coal by weight (Le Billon, 2017)!
Black gold
Today, oil is a trillion dollar economy and an extremely lucrative financial trading market, hence earning its name as black gold (CFI, 2020). The demand for oil has generally been increasing since it was popularised (except in 2020 – more about this in the third post). In 2019, the world consumed about 53,620 TWh (in terawatt-hour equivalents) of oil (Ritchie & Roser, n.d.)! Furthermore, global oil reserves grew by 51% from 1995-2015, and now stands at 7.1 trillion barrels (Billon, 2017), reflecting our unquenchable thirst for crude oil. Because of this profitability and sky-high demand, industries produce more, people consume more oil and its products, further incentivising industries to produce even more.
Pollution
Pollution from oil consumption and its associated atmospheric accumulation of carbon dioxide and anthropogenic climate change is nothing foreign. Carbon dioxide emissions from oil has increased by 11.6% from 2008 to 2018 (Ritchie & Roser, n.d.), and is estimated that its production is responsible for 15-40% of the total greenhouse gas emissions from transport fuels like gasoline and diesel (Löwhagen., 2018).
Generally, refining crude oil has the following pollutive effects (HSRC/S&SW, 2003):
- Air pollution – hazardous air pollutants such as nitrogen oxides (NOx), sulfur dioxide (SO2) and particulate matter (PM). Less toxic hydrocarbons such as natural gas, light volatile fuels and oils
- Water pollution – groundwater pollution when wastewater is disposed into aquifers and groundwater using deep-injection wells
- Soil pollution – Accidents during oil transportation, soil contamination by hazardous wastes, sludges or coke dust during treatment
- Other impacts such as ocean acidification by acidifying pollutants (e.g. carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide) and its associated knock-on effects on aquatic life and human health
Well, since we cannot possibly cover everything, we’re going to zoom in to oil spills.
Join us next in the next post! – Pollution caused by the production of oil via offshore drilling, the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill of 2010.
References:
BBC (n.d.) How did oil come to run our world? Available from: https://www.bbc.co.uk/teach/how-did-oil-come-to-run-our-world/zn6gnrd [Accessed 12 September 2020].
CFI (2020) Crude oil overview. Available from: https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com/resources/knowledge/economics/crude-oil-overview/ Accessed 12 September 2020].
Hazardous Substance Research Centers/South & Southwest Outreach Program [HSRC/S&SW] (2003) Environmental Impact of the Petroleum Industry. Available from: https://www.academia.edu/39909554/Environmental_Impact_of_the_Petroleum_Industry_Environmental_Update_12 [Accessed 12 September 2020].
Le Billon, P. & Williams, A. (2017) Corruption, Natural Resources and Development: From Resource Curse to Political Ecology. Edward Elgar Publishing, Cheltenham.
Löwhagen, C. New study reveals real size of crude oil’s carbon footprint. Available from: https://www.chalmers.se/en/departments/see/news/Pages/Crude-oil-carbon-footprint.aspx [Accessed 12 September 2020].
Murty K.G. (2020) Models for Optimum Decision Making: Crude Oil Production and Refining. Switzerland, Springer Nature. Available from: https://doi-org.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/10.1007/978-3-030-40212-9_1.
Ranken Energy Corporation (n.d.) Products made from petroleum. Available from: https://www.ranken-energy.com/index.php/products-made-from-petroleum/ [Accessed 12 September 2020].
Ritchie, H. & Roser, M (n.d.) Fossil fuels. Available from: https://ourworldindata.org/fossil-fuels#citation [Accessed 12 September 2020].
U.S. Energy Information Administration (2020) Oil and petroleum products explained. Available from: https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/oil-and-petroleum-products/use-of-oil.php [Accessed 12 September 2020].
U.S. Energy Information Administration (2019) Frequently asked questions (FAQs). Available from: https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=40&t=6 [Accessed 12 September 2020].