"Petroleum-An In Depth Look"
One doesn’t have to look far to discover the importance of oil in our modern world. From manufacturing to transportation to industry, petroleum products are some of the most universally used in our society today. Since the discovery of oil and other fossil fuels, their products have laid the groundwork for the industrial revolution and the energy driven society we live in now. What our society often takes for granted, such as our modern transportation, mass manufacturing, and use of technology, is enabled by our abundant and cheap supply of petroleum and its byproducts. Still, petroleum comes with a definite downside as all fossil fuels burned on a large scale can have lasting environmental consequences. The future is clear, if our world is serious about preserving our environment, sustainable energy sources must be obtained and the use of petroleum, coal, and other fossil fuels must be curbed.
The realization that our world cannot sustain itself on the continuous use of petroleum and fossil fuels alone leads to some thought. Common questions that often arise when thinking about this idea start with how did we get to this point, becoming some reliant on the use of petroleum? Are we able to move beyond our reliance now, and if not, how much petroleum is left and how long can we economically sustain our world on it? What are the environmental consequences of petroleum use and will it destroy our environment before we can even use all of our reserves? What are we doing to push our society towards a point where we can effectively curb our use of oil and move past our reliance on it? These are all more then valid questions but the answers are not necessarily as straightforward as many people would like, but the fact is that the past, present, and future of our petroleum use is complicated and greatly intertwined into our habits as humans. This isn’t to stay these questions shouldn’t be raised though, just because a straight and easy answer cannot be given. It is extremely important to take into consideration the negative effects that come with petroleum use as well, so one doesn’t take for granted that the positive effect petroleum has on our everyday lives doesn’t come without a cost.
My thinking is that with our current negative environmental affects that come with the use of petroleum eventually outweigh the good on a long-term scale. Yes, petroleum does provide a convenient source of energy at a cheap and affordable price and make our day-to-day lives easier. However, the pollution that comes with it and the fact that it is a nonrenewable energy source leads me to believe we will move away from petroleum use sooner rather than later. Changing the attitude of the public and raising environmental awareness to the consequences of widespread petroleum use are the starting points to a sustainable future. Before going into the current issues on petroleum and eventual push towards a renewable energy source, it is important to dive into and review the history of petroleum to understand how it became such an intertwined and integral part of human society.
The use of oil, contrary to popular belief, was actually born in ancient Greece, as oil was used to make flaming arrows. Other uses of petroleum were seen at other scattered points throughout early history, the most notable being the Chinese drilling of oil wells as early as 347 AD (Smil 102). This leads to the event most commonly referred to as the start of the petroleum industry, the first oil well drilled in the United States by Edwin Drake on August 27, 1859 in Titusville, Pennsylvania. Drake actually used an improved and modified version of the Chinese percussion drilling technique (Smil 103). The main use of oil at the time was for one of its main byproducts in kerosene. When Drake went drilling in Pennsylvania in 1849, he was really looking for a more reliable and plentiful source of kerosene. What he found was a way to extract rock oil straight from the ground by drilling, which marked the beginning of a massive shift towards the use of oil itself as an energy source (priweb.org). Though Drake and his company the Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company were able to start refining and mass-producing oil, the technique that was mastered by John D. Rockfeller and his Standard Oil Company founded in 1870 (pbs.org).
Like previously stated, the period of kerosene in the history of petroleum was not a very long one. Thomas Edison’s invention of the light bulb in 1878 would eliminate the demand for kerosene as a primary energy source. By this time however, the market for petroleum had greatly stagnated with Standard Oil owning roughly 90% of the refining market (priweb.org). It wasn’t until a new entrepreneur in Henry Ford came along that the oil industry saw an increase in the demand for oil. Until the mass production of the affordable Model T, gasoline was seen as a useless byproduct of oil, the throw away to kerosene (Environmental Literacy Council). Ford and his company were able to mass-produce automobiles on a large scale never before seen. In fact, in 1900 there were only 8,000 registered vehicles, but by 1920, that number had grown to over 23 million. And with gasoline powered engines being the most efficient way to power these vehicles, the automobile industry lead the way to a revitalized oil market (Environmental Literacy Council). Soon another breakup in the industry occurred when the petroleum giant that was Standard Oil was declared an illegal monopoly by the Supreme Court and broken up into 30 smaller companies (pbs.org).
The next event to have a substantial impact on the petroleum industry was World War I. “World War I irrevocably changed the role of petroleum in the world” (Environmental Literacy Council). At the start of the war in 1914, military strategy was built around horses as the primary mode of transportation since gas powered vehicles were not widely available. Britain for example only had about 800 vehicles in circulation, most of which were privately owned (Environmental Literacy Council). The logistical problems of this military planning soon came to the forefront, as the planned one horse for every three soldiers left many without effective transportation and also cost the government 10x in food supply. The widespread adoption of tanks, ships, and planes with internal combustion engines meant that petroleum would become a critical advantage in the war effort and the demand for it would again drastically increase (Environmental Literacy Council).
The demand for petroleum would continue into WWII. Greater axis to oil was one of the main reasons the Allied Powers were able to win the war, as they weren’t as limited in their transportation. They could put more planes in the air, tanks on the ground, and transport more troops then the Axis forces could, allowing them greatly flexibility in their strategies. At this time, oil companies were also looking to expand into other parts of the world, as the United States still vastly dominated the market with 65% of global production into the 1940s (pbs.org). Eventually American companies Standard Oil and Texas Oil Company settled in Saudi Arabia and founded Dhahran Oil in 1938. With the expansion also came a period of experimentation and invention, most notably marked by the invention of Nylon, the first synthetic fiber (made with oil) in 1935 (pbs.org).
The period after the war demonstrated how reliant the world really was on petroleum, especially the United States. The 1970s brought great unrest to the petroleum market, as the 1973 Arab oil embargo “created a short term shortage and lead to a massive price increase from $4 to $12 a barrel over a six month period” (EIA.gov). The Iranian Revolution in 1979 further lead to a supply shock in the oil market, which caused a spike in prices yet again. “Iran’s deductions of 3.9 million barrels a day lead to another price jump to around $35 dollars a barrel” (EIA.gov). The instability of the 1970s showed political leaders the value of a domestic supply of energy, which led to the building of hundreds of new coalmines and nuclear power plants across the country (Environmental Literacy Council). Today, the US and much of the world is not as reliant on petroleum market as in the past, but state conversations dealing with petroleum as the primary energy source still continue to this day.
There are a couple of main problems associated with petroleum in the modern day world that will lead to its eventual downfall as a primary energy source. For one, petroleum is a non-renewable energy source, which means it has a finite resource limit. This fact alone means that our society can only sustain itself for a limited number of years with oil as a primary energy source. On top of concerns with sustainability, the environmental effects of petroleum in both sides of the process (consumer and productions) have a large negative impact as well. Up until this point in petroleum’s history these downsides have been manageable, but with growing environmental consciousness and heightened interest in sustainable energy sources, it looks as though our society is moving away from petroleum as a primary energy source. Obviously this process will not happen overnight, as it will take a lot of time and planning to curb our use of petroleum and develop a sustainable renewable energy source.
The environmental affects of petroleum are definitely the most well known negatives when talking about petroleum. This is due in part to the media coverage that environmental disasters such as the BP Oil Spill in 2010 and the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill receive. Contrary to what the media covers, the supply side of petroleum and disasters like these are not the main environmental detriments of petroleum. These disasters are do greatly damage the environment, but they have significantly declined over the past years and cleanup efforts can reduce their effects to manageable levels when they do happen (Energy4me). The demand for and consumer side of petroleum plays a much larger role in the serve damage caused to the environment by petroleum. Emissions and pollution from burning petroleum affects the entire planet and have much longer lasting affects on the environment (Energy4Me). That pollution into the atmosphere is permanent and unlike supply side disasters, their effects cannot be cleaned up.
Lets dive into what the burning of petroleum does to the environment. Burning petroleum emits dangerous greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxide, and methane compounds. On the average passenger vehicle alone, over five tons of carbon dioxide is emitted into the atmosphere each year (epa.gov). This doesn’t even take into account the emissions made in the production of the vehicle and its initial transport. These gases are slowly creating a larger ozone layer, which leads to a global warming of our planet and greatly affects our air, lands, and seas as a result (epa.gov). Petroleum fueled automobiles, planes, and other forms of transportation are at the forefront of this problem, as 70% of the US demand for oil goes straight to the transportation sector (Institute for energy research). A lot has been done to curb the use of petroleum in transportation, such as the development of hybrid cars and alternate fuel sources such as ethanol and corn (National Academics). Still, these developments have made very little impact, as over 80% of the energy used in the transportation sector comes from petroleum. The future looks better though, as these inventions, coupled with improved forms of public transportation that don’t involve petroleum (like high speed trains) give cause for optimism on a future with renewable energy sources of transportation (National Academics).
The next problem is the finite quality of petroleum and its economic and social effects. This quality is best brought up in the idea and context of peak oil. The idea was first discussed in the 1950s to predict the eventual peak of American crude oil production, but it has been expanded to be applied globally as well. The premise is that demand for oil will continuously increase until a certain point of maximum production is reached. At this point, the state cannot physically increase production of crude oil anymore, as after this peak point is reached, production will decrease until the energy resource is exhausted (Encyclopedia of the Environment). In America, this effect has played itself out in the production of oil in the last century or so. US started producing oil at roughly less then 1 million barrels a day at the beginning of the 19th century, which increased to over 9 million barrels a day in the 1970s. After this proverbial peak, production has steadily declined and bottomed out at 5 million barrels a day in the mid 2000s (Encyclopedia of the Environment). Within the last few years though, an increase in production has been driven by new and innovative methods such as fracking. The explosion of fracking in the northeastern and offshore drilling in the Gulf Coast has led many to think the United States production is back on the upswing and could potentially out produce the peak it hit in the 1970s.
The rate of production pales in comparison in importance of petroleum’s future to the amount of petroleum reserves that remain. This is because oil is a non-renewable resource and production will cease when the resource has been exhausted. The current global consumption rate of oil is 85 million barrels per day, contrasting with the 1.3 trillion barrels of conventional oil reserve found throughout the world (US Energy Information Administration). At this current pace, the world will run out of oil reserves within the next two to three decades (Institute for Energy Research). This statistic is a bit misleading though, as conventional oil reserves are small in comparison to unconventional petroleum reserves. In fact, they account for only 1/3 of total global reserves. Estimates unconventional reserves fluctuate greatly based on prices and technological advancements, though many pinpoint the number at about 2 trillion barrels recoverable from reserves worldwide. These statistics point to a supply constraint will be undoubtedly be reached, but not for a good amount of time. This extended time frame gives the world a longer period of time to move away from conventional oil and develops and institute renewable energy sources.
With the negative aspects of petroleum use in mind, the solution is simple: our world must move away from large-scale petroleum use. Global climate change to the environment is a serious yet not immediate threat, but common sense would point to a curbing of petroleum usage in the future. Once our usage of oil and fossil fuels is curbed, we must look to alternative renewable energy source. Petroleum fit our needs in the past; it was cheap, widespread, and easily transported, but with our new technologies and increased manpower, we should be able to effectively move on.
Although it will be eventually done, moving on from petroleum to sustainable energy sources such as hydroelectric power, solar, or wind energy will not be an easy process. The oil industry is greatly entrenched in many governments around the world, as the United States can be looked as an example. Even in times of recession and budget cuts, the oil industry still receives billions of dollars of taxpayer’s money each year in subsides. Still even with the power the petroleum industry yields, rising oil prices seem to be here to stay, unlike the unstable market of the 1970s. On top of that, falling alternative energy costs, increased technology, and lucrative government incentives greatly improve prospects for a sustainable energy source.
For this change to happen successfully, it comes down to the people. The demand side of economy drives the petroleum industry. People need to show that this is something that we care about; we want to move away from petroleum and look towards a alternative energy future. It will take a small sacrifice from people, whether that be paying a little more for a fuel efficient care or riding their bike to work everyday, even the smallest changes spread over a large population will make a significant difference. Combine these changes with government-enacted taxes for environmental pollution and technologies like totally electric cars; the future looks bright for a renewable and sustainable energy future. All of the above can be implemented effectively to move on form petroleum but to truly make an effective change, it is and always will be in the hands of the people.
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