Oil reserves report

Oil is one of our most precious and important resources. We rarely consider how
important oil is to the running of our everyday lives. The most obvious use of crude
oil is as a fuel. Oil is fractionally distilled at oil refineries to separate the different
hydrocarbons in crude oil. One of the most important of these is petrol, or octane
(C8H18). Petrol, along with diesel, is the main fuel for transport. Cars, of course run on
petrol, but diesel-electric trains also require oil based fuels. All aircraft consume a
large amount of kerosene – another part of oil.
A further use of oil is for power. Although only less than 5% of our power is
produced in oil-fired power stations
it is still a valid use for oil.
The other key use for oil is
processing certain hydrocarbons to
produce polymers which are used to
make artificial fibres and paints. Oil
based monomers are polymerised to
form long-chain molecules that can
be used to make synthetic fibres like
nylon and polyester, used in clothes.
Another use for oil is in the
production of plastics. Plastics are
made in a similar way to other
polymers. After the First World War,
improvements in chemical
technology led to an explosion in new forms of plastics. Among the earliest examples
in the wave of new plastics were "polystyrene" (PS) and "polyvinyl chloride" (PVC),
developed by IG Farben of Germany. Plastics are now everywhere in the modern
world.

The world’s current oil reserves can be seen on the map. The largest reserves are to be
found in the deserts of the Middle East, in areas such as Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia.
There are also generous oil reserves in Russia, Venezuela and Alaska. Oil from
Nigeria and Venezuela is typically more viscous because it contains a higher
percentage of long chain hydrocarbons. Middle Eastern oil is runnier and contains
smaller hydrocarbon molecules.
Oil reserves give massive commercial benefits to the nation they are owned
by, because every country requires oil. An example of the benefits of oil to a nation is
Saudi Arabia. Once a relatively poor collection of desert provinces; during the 1940s,
massive oil reserves began to be exploited. This gave the newly unified nation a great
deal of new wealth and international influence. No country can afford to ignore the
great oil powers like Saudi Arabia because every economy requires so much oil.
However, great oil wealth can make oil rich nations a target for military
attacks. In the early 1990s, dictator of Iraq, Saddam Hussein, turned his military
might upon the oil rich nations of Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. This was mainly because
Iraq was bankrupt at the time and needed a source of quick wealth. However, with so
much at stake for all developed countries that rely on oil, a coalition, led by the USA
chose to intervene, and freed Kuwait from the Iraqi military. This conflict, known as
the Gulf War, shows how concerned the governments of all Western countries are of
their supplies of oil being cut.

Despite its obvious benefit in being a good fuel and brilliant for manufacturing a wide
range of products, the use of oil can have detrimental effects on the environment. Oil
spills happen when the large oil tankers that transport oil around the world capsize or
somehow release the oil they are transporting into the sea. Oil spills harm sea birds
because oiled birds cannot keep warm and find it very difficult to fly. The combustion
of oil releases harmful gases into the atmosphere, one of these is carbon dioxide,
which is thought to contribute to the Greenhouse effect by trapping the Sun’s energy
trying to escape back into space. Other pollutants like sulphur dioxide, which causes
acid rain, and nitrous oxides, which can cause asthma are also made by burning oil.
Long chain hydrocarbons can be broken down into smaller hydrocarbons by thermal
cracking. The smaller hydrocarbons are more useful as fuels and monomers.
Cracking the
hydrocarbons in oil
uses a lot of heat, which
has to be produced in
power stations by
combustion and so
makes lots of
pollutants.

As well as the
environmental effects
of oil use, oil is also
said to be non-
renewable. This means
that oil is being
consumed much faster
than it is being
produced. It forms over
millions of years in
very hard-to-find conditions (i.e.
This is a diagram that Hubbert used to predict the peak
and subsequent decline of US oil
the absence of oxygen). It is now predicted that we have only forty years of oil left
with the current reserves we have.
The timeframe for the maximum production of oil, and then a decline in
production, is called peak oil. M. King Hubbert first used the theory in 1956 to
accurately predict that United States oil production would peak between 1965 and
1970. This peak oil timeframe has been proved right on other occasions with other
countries. You can see in the diagram that once world oil production has peaked it
starts to decline until it cannot fulfil demand. What peak oil is really telling us is that
we must brace ourselves for a world without oil.

A world without oil will be a difficult one to live in. For a start, none of the products
like plastic will be being made any more. We must find other fuels for our cars and
our power stations. This is why environmentalists are pushing us to use renewable
energy sources instead of relying so heavily on fossil fuels.
One idea is to use ethanol from plants in cars along with normal petrol reduce
the amount of petrol used. This sort of fuel is called Gasohol; it is common in the
Midwest of America and in Thailand.
Renewable power sources like wind and water are also beginning to be used in
some countries to replace other methods; they are also beneficial because they do not
produce carbon dioxide gas, thought to be a cause for global warming.

My personal opinion is that we should begin in earnest to prepare for a world without
oil. The continual increase in the use of renewable energies is a good route to follow,
but we also need to consider what materials will be able to replace plastics. My belief
is that the world’s leaders need to begin thinking about how the world will cope in
forty years with no oil, instead of worrying whether they will win the next election.
However, the oil crisis may be a good opportunity for researchers to discover and
promote new methods for making and materials or fuels, which have previously been
seen as pointless due to the use of oil, so ingrained in our society.