Petroleum

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Petroleum is also called crude oil, crude, or oil. Petroleum is a thick and black liquid. It consists mainly of hydrocarbons. It is mainly found in the Middle East, United States, South America, and Russia. It is the most important world energy source. It supplies 38% of the world's energy at present.

Petroleum can be separated into less complex but more useful mixtures by fractional distillation. The process is called oil refining.

Petroleum can be easily transported by pipeline. Treated petroleum can be used as fuels (mostly gasoline (or petrol) for cars) and lubricants.

Other uses of petroleum:

• alcohols
• antiseptics
• artificial rubber
• detergents
• drugs
• explosives
• food additives
• insecticides
• perfumes
• plastics
• textile fibres

[edit] Problems

Petroleum resource is limited and non-renewable. Most of it would run out within 70 years. Burning petroleum gives out carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide can cause global warming and air pollution.

Crude is chemically speaking a mixture of lots of different chemicals most of which burn well. It is separated by distillation in oil refineries to give separate chemicals such as gasoline (or petrol) for cars, kerosene for aeroplanes and bitumen for roads. The bitumen gives crude oil its dark black colour; most of the other chemicals in crude are slightly yellow or colourless.

There is a lot of crude oil left underground. Oil companies quote "reserves" which some people confuse with the actual amount of oil underground, but are more to do with extraction costs. Most of the crude left underground is in the Middle East which is not a politically stable part of the world. Some governments with lots of oil reserves work together through OPEC to keep production low and prices high. Policitians complain about high oil prices because voters complain. However many environmentalists worry about the damage being done by using oil as a fuel source (especially global warming) and are therefore happy that prices are kept high so that people use less oil.

Compare: coal, natural gas