The Benefits Of Crude Oil

Decent Essays
There are many products that we use in our everyday life. Some of them we take for granted and we could not imagine life without them. For some people it might be phones, computers, video games, or even blankets. For me personally I would have to say that the product that I can not live without is gasoline. This product helps in many ways, but one of the most common uses is to provide us with transportation. I drive my car to and from school everyday and I would find it very challenging to get to school without the use of a car or bus. This product has provided us with the ability to reach far away places within a matter of hours which has revolutionized how we live. This allows us to spread out more and still be able to reach places that we …show more content…
For this life changing liquid to be produced there needs to be a supply of crude oil. This liquid “Is created through the heating and compression of organic materials over a long period of time. Most of the oil we extract today comes from the remains of prehistoric algae and zooplankton whose remains settled on the bottom of an Ocean or Lake (“What is Crude Oil?”). What this means is that the crude oil that we extract today comes from the remains of what organic material died millions of years ago (“What Is Crude Oil?”). To extract this liquid a pumping unit is used to extract the crude oil from below the earth’s surface. However for that to become possible a hole must be drilled down to the pocket of crude oil. A drilling rig is used to drill a hole down to the oil pocket. Long rods with a hole in the middle are pushed down in a twisting motion through the middle of the rig to bore down until they aren’t long enough (How It’s Made). Then another long rod with a hole in the middle is inserted onto the top of the rod that isn’t long enough (How It’s Made). This process continues until the rig makes it to the oil pocket. Then a steel tube is inserted into the well to stop it from collapsing. After …show more content…
One of the largest and most advanced oil refineries is SATORP located in Saudi Arabia at Al-Jubail Industrial City 2, 4048-Unit No1, Al-Jubail 35741-7821, Eastern Province, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This oil refinery refines over 400,000 barrels of oil a day turning them into products such as lpg, benzene paraxylene, gasoline, jet, diesel, and propylene (“The Refining Process”). The process by which this accomplished is called heating. This process heats the crude oil to temperatures in excess of 700 degrees fahrenheit where the crude oil starts to evaporate and rise up towards the top of the cooking unit (“The Refining Process”). Based on where these vapors condense in the cooking unit determines what type of product they are (“The Refining Process”). For example the lightest of the vapors will make its way all the way to the top and condense and this product will be lpg or liquefied petroleum. These are products like propane or butane. The more dense vapors will only make it up the tower a little bit and condense, these products are typically heavy gas oils. There is one problem though, since there is a high demand for gasoline it is a requirement that each barrel of crude oil yields at least 60 percent gasoline, but on average a barrel only yields 44 percent gasoline (“The Refining Process”). To meet this requirement some of the heavier materials produced by heating are then further refined into gasoline.

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