Oil has been heating our homes, powering our cars, and creating electricity for centuries. Often called black gold, this viscous fossil fuel has transformed lifestyles and living standards for millions of people worldwide.
Oil has been heating our homes, powering our cars, and creating electricity for centuries. Sometimes called black gold, this viscous fossil fuel has transformed lifestyles and living standards for millions of people worldwide.
Oil as an energy source is an increasingly controversial subject. Greenhouse gas emissions from burning oil have contributed to climate change, leading to calls for cleaner power generation sources.
Renewable energy sources have gained a lot of traction in recent years as people seek to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. But the recent energy crisis has shown how much gasoline for vehicles and our home energy prices still rely on the cost and availability of crude oil.
Let’s look at oil as an energy source and why it will likely remain an essential fuel until the day it runs out.
What Is Crude Oil as an Energy Source?
Crude oil is liquid petroleum, also known as a hydrocarbon, found in rock formations on land and offshore. Companies drill down into known reserves to extract the oil, which is taken away for refinement.
Oil can be found in bitumen and tar sands, also known as oil sands. Hydraulic fracking is another extraction technique, which is popular in the United States — in 2021, about 64% of the country’s oil production came from fracking, also known as hydraulic fracturing.
What Are the Uses of Crude Oil?
Crude oil becomes gasoline for automobiles, diesel fuels, and transportation fuels. The American’s love of the car means that petroleum is still the country’s top primary energy source (followed by natural gas). But oil doesn’t stop at the internal combustion engine.
Through a distillation process called cracking, petrochemical refineries also deliver petroleum products like kerosene and liquid gas. Plastics and materials are also produced that can be adapted into items as varied as medicines, and car tires — some 99% of plastics come from oil.
Aside from powering our vehicles, oil helps produce electric power. The 1970s were petroleum’s heyday in the United States in terms of electricity generation, peaking at around 20%, according to the Energy Information Administration (EAI). However, fast forward to 2021, and oil accounted for about 1% of all electricity production in the U.S. as renewable energy sources, nuclear energy, and natural gas power plants proliferated.
Globally, oil remains the most popular primary energy source, responsible for a third of all energy use. However, just 2.7% of oil consumption is for electricity production. Some people also have oil boilers at home to keep their houses warm.
How Is Electricity Produced Using Oil?
Nuclear power plants, coal-fired power plants, and oil-run power plants all produce electricity in similar ways. The basic energy production technique required is to create steam, be that through burning coal or oil, or in nuclear’s case, splitting atoms to heat water. That steam powers turbines that produce electricity.
How Much Oil Does It Take to Create Electricity?
Petroleum power stations may burn liquid fuels or petroleum coke to create steam to turn turbines to produce electricity.
We’ll think about it in terms of kilowatt-hours (kWh), a measurement of electricity used by energy companies to charge customers. A kilowatt-hour equates to the amount of energy required to run a 1,000-watt appliance for an hour. That could be something like a washing machine or a small oven.
For example, to run a 1,000-watt washing machine for an hour, a power plant would need to burn these equivalents for each kWh:
- 0.08 gallons of petroleum liquids
- 0.82 pounds of petroleum coke
- 1.12 pounds of coal
- 7.36 cubic feet of natural gas
What’s the Difference Between Gas and Oil?
Gasoline and oil are both non-renewable fossil fuels. Gasoline is a refined and lighter version of oil. Natural gas, however, is a gas (often methane) that’s not in liquid form.
Is Gas Made From Oil?
Yes, gas is made from oil. Crude oil pumped to the surface or onto rigs at sea is called petroleum. Following refinement, gasoline — which most folks shorten to gas — is made.
What Is Gas Made Out Of?
Gasoline comes from crude oil that has undergone refining. We’ve learned that crude oil is a hydrocarbon, and these carbon molecules help separate crude oil into its many useful future forms.
A distillation process sees crude oil heated to a boiling point of around 600 degrees Celsius, or 1,112 degrees Fahrenheit. This liquid is then injected into a vaporization tower to cool.
Gases like propane and butane can be refined from crude oil. These gases have few carbon molecules and lower boiling points and rise to the top of the distillation tower. Gasoline coalesces a little lower down, with a higher boiling point and some more carbon molecules than the gasses.
The belly of the distillation tower is where heavier, thicker liquid fuels like diesel fuel, lubricating oil, and heavy gas oil form.
How Does Gas Get Made?
Like crude oil, natural gas is extracted from reservoirs below the Earth’s surface. Both are often taken out at the same time. Hydraulic fracking for shale gas, extracted via fracking, is another natural gas.
According to Naturalgas.org, most natural gas deposits that we use consist of methane, ethane, propane, butane, and carbon dioxide. Most homes and businesses connected to natural gas pipelines receive methane, a naturally-occurring hydrocarbon gas.
Is Oil a Renewable Energy Source?
Oil, petroleum, gasoline, and their derivatives are non-renewable energy sources. Fossil fuels cannot be replenished at the same rate of use, and oil takes millions of years to form.
It’s hard to know the total energy left underground worldwide. However, these estimates paint a stark picture for fossil fuels. Based on current consumption levels, there may be the following resources left for the global energy system:
- 47 years of oil reserves
- 133 years for coal
- 52 years for natural gas
Who Are the World’s Biggest Oil Producers?
In 2021, according to the EIA, the world’s biggest oil-producing nation was the United States, with a 20% global share of production. The U.S. produced 18.98 million barrels of oil daily, followed by Saudi Arabia and Russia, with each having 11% of the world’s oil production. The United States is also the greatest oil consumer, using more than it produces at home. China (15%) and India (11%) are the two subsequent biggest oil users.
Which Country Has the Biggest Oil Reserves?
Venezuela has the largest oil reserves, with over 300 billion barrels, or 17.5%, of the world’s supply, just ahead of Saudi Arabia (17.2%). Canada accounts for 10% of global reserves, while the United States has 4% or 68.8 billion barrels.
What Are the Environmental Impacts of Oil?
The environmental impact of drilling for oil, refining it, and then burning it comes with costs to the planet, despite the oil industry’s efforts to clean up its act.
Oil companies dig oil wells on land to reach reservoirs of crude trapped below the surface. Any site chosen for oil extraction changes thoroughly, with pipelines, oil wells, roads, and associated infrastructure changing the locality.
Crude oil and natural gas are often found together. Some oil companies burn off methane while extracting oil in a process called flaring, adding to local air pollution as well as wasting a non-renewable source of energy.
There are also scores of famous global oil spills. One of the most haunting occurred in 2010 at BP’s Deepwater Horizon rig. The company spilled 130 million gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico, devastating wildlife and sadly resulting in the loss of 11 workers’ lives.
What Are the Renewable Energy Alternatives to Oil?
As we’ve seen, oil has been phased out in many electricity production sites globally. Its stronghold — as the liquid fuel gasoline — is also coming under threat. Fossil fuels make up 84% of the world’s total energy supply. This sizable energy chunk is challenging to phase out quickly, but things are moving.
Hydroelectric power, where moving water rotates turbines to create electricity, is popular in many countries. Hydropower provided 6.4% of all primary energy in 2019, more than all other renewables combined.
Solar photovoltaic panels are a common site these days as solar power expands. Texas is backing solar, second only to California in solar energy production. The Lone Star State is also the country’s leading wind energy producer and responsible for four-fifths of Texas’ renewable electricity production. Texas now has more than 10,000 megawatts of installed wind power.
Small countries like Iceland have had success with geothermal energy, with nearly all its heating and electricity coming from geothermal power plants.
Oil’s greatest threat is anything that targets its automobile industry. Bioenergy and biomass fuels are one of those growth areas where biofuels like ethanol, made from crops, could replace gasoline. Many organic materials are suitable to use as what are called feedstocks, the biomass material needed to create biofuels.
Can We Live Without Oil?
Humans can live without oil — we did for centuries — it’s just a matter of how we would live and what we would lose. Without ready-made replacements, we would lose most long-range and short-range transportation options. Alternative technology would need to find a way to step into the breach, such as oil tankers, lorries, and cars powered by hydrogen gas or more electric vehicles.
Can We Make Plastic Without Oil?
Yes, we can make plastic without oil. We can make plastic from natural gas and even coal, plus there’s a lot of existing plastic that we could recycle better. The rise of the electric vehicle is another area where oil may soon find itself under pressure. Mass adoption of electric cars means fewer people will be reaching for the pump, therefore reducing demand.
What Causes Energy Prices to Rise?
Global energy prices have been rising for several reasons recently. A robust and demand-led recovery after COVID lockdowns, coupled with supply bottlenecks, started to push up the price of wholesale natural gas and coal in 2020-2021. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine further rocked international supply routes, with many countries refusing to import Russian oil, natural gas, or coal.
A worldwide scramble for resources ensued, with fossil fuel prices rocketing. This, in turn, made everything more expensive as people looked to warm their homes and travel around. Energy companies were accused of profiteering as they enjoyed incredibly-high and surprising profits.
How Did OPEC Respond to the Energy Crisis?
OPEC numbers 13 members and includes Nigeria, Qatar, and Algeria, alongside founding members Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela. OPEC seeks to regulate and influence international oil prices. The organization recently announced a reduction in crude production — in tandem with Russia — to help keep oil prices high.
Why Do Oil Prices Affect Kilowatt-Hour Rates?
Crude oil drives almost every economy; gasoline greases the wheels of trade, helps us move around, and maintains multi-faceted lifestyles in the modern world.
Rising oil prices impact many aspects of life. For example, higher fuel bills for farmers mean food prices rise. Medicines become more expensive to produce and ship, and couriers may have to charge more for their services as it costs more to fill up their vehicles.
All this feeds into the power production model. Power plant costs rise, and other fossil fuel prices increase as people look for reliable energy sources. Eventually, like any service, power generators and energy companies pass these costs to their customers regarding kWh-price rises.
What If All the Oil Ran Out?
It’s mere speculation as to how a world without oil would be. We have almost a half-century of available supplies, albeit many would prefer we reduce consumption now.
However, an oil-less world would have less plastic waste, fewer cars in town, and the possibility for streets and neighborhoods to be more people than car-friendly.
However, it will run out, and some readers will be young enough to see what happens once the final drop of oil is used. We can only hope it doesn’t end in a Mad Max dystopia!
A Nod to the Importance of Oil as an Energy Source
Many people want to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and scrapping oil dependency is often at the forefront of environmentalists’ efforts to achieve that. Oil is a polluting fuel that causes harm to people, communities, and wildlife wherever it’s used.
However, oil has played a long and consistent role in the energy supply chain. Oil is an energy source that humans have enjoyed a lot. Its flame may not shine much longer as known resources start to dwindle. For now, countries are able to meet global supply to keep transport systems running.
The U.S. loves its cars and gasoline but doesn’t have a substantial petroleum-based electricity market. However, you can always help reduce your carbon dioxide emissions. For example, you could switch suppliers to a renewable energy plan.
If you can’t switch, you can always reduce your energy bills by changing your energy consumption habits and employing energy-efficiency at home.
Remember, it’s not the end of the road for oil just yet — but the checkered flag is coming into view.
Brought to you by amigoenergy
All images licensed from Adobe Stock.
Featured image: