Petroleum By Duncan Hayes and Greg Oberschelp

Introduction Petroleum products are used in transportation, manufacturing, agriculture, and almost every other area of the economy Upside: interconnectedness, industrialization, makes the modern world possible Downside: massive environmental damage, finite resource, reliance on foreign sources

Questions How did society become so reliant on petroleum, and how can we fix that? How much is left? What are the environmental effects?

Brief History First oil well in US: Edwin Drake in Titusville, Pennsylvania August 27, 1859 Used modified version of Chinese percussion drilling Drake was looking for sources of kerosene John D. Rockefeller founded Standard Oil in 1870

Brief History (cont’d) Demand for kerosene eliminated by Thomas Edison’s invention of light bulb in 1878 Rockefeller’s Standard Oil controlled 90% of refining market, industry stagnated Henry Ford popularized cars in early 20 th century, leading to demand for petroleum in the form of gasoline Gasoline went from useless kerosene byproduct to useful fuel

Brief History (cont’d) Standard Oil broken up with anti-trust laws in 1911 World War I: game changer for petroleum Widespread adoption of ships, tanks, planes with internal combustion engines British armed forces: under 1,000 vehicles at start of war, over 90,000 by the end Petroleum becomes a strategic resource

Brief History (cont’d) After the war, American oil companies began exploring around the world, including the Middle East and Saudi Arabia in particular US still dominated production with over 65% of the market until 1940s New petroleum-based products: invention of Nylon in 1935-first fully synthetic fiber

Brief History (cont’d) World War II: proved importance of access to petroleum One of the major reasons Japan attacked Pearl Harbor was Roosevelt’s decision to cut off petroleum shipments Allied forces had better access to petroleum, allowed them to out produce Axis over time

Brief History (cont’d) First hint of problems with petroleum: 1973 oil embargo West was heavily dependent on Mid East oil, price quadrupled during crisis Another supply shock in 1979 after Iranian Revolution Price spike encouraged move toward alternatives, but price collapsed in 1980s

Technological Aspects Petroleum is a finite, non-renewable resource Peak Oil: idea that total production has some hard maximum limit, will hit the limit then decrease a.org/wikipedia/comm ons/7/79/US_Crude_O il_Production_versus_ Hubbert_Curve.png

Technological Aspects (cont’d) Unconventional sources of oil have disrupted the peak oil theory somewhat ld.biz/ceo/wp - content/uploa ds/2012/12/U S-oil- output.jpg

Technological Aspects (cont’d) Global Proven Reserves: about 1.3 trillion barrels from conventional sources Technically Recoverable: over 2 trillion barrels from unconventional sources (fracking, oil sands, etc.) Price has a huge impact on what is considered reserves/resources

Technological Aspects (cont’d) 72% of petroleum in US goes directly to gasoline, diesel, or jet fuel Efficiency: average automobile: 15-25%, diesel engine up to 40-50%, jet engines 20-40% When considering efficiency of production as well, total efficiency is quite low

Social Aspects “End our reliance on foreign oil” –Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Bush, Obama As of 2009, about 66% of petroleum was from foreign sources Due to fracking and other technological advances, it is possible that the US can eliminate a significant amount of its oil imports over the next couple decades

Social Aspects (cont’d) Petroleum industry has a lot of political influence Industry receives about $4 billion a year in various subsidies and tax breaks This must change if we want to decrease use of petroleum

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