1. By Grace H., Amy C., Pooja G., Sean C.
What is Petroleum?
By Grace H., Amy C., Pooja G., Sean C.

2. Petroleum is a liquid fossil fuel and is also called crude oil.

3. How is Petroleum formed?
- Petroleum is formed over million years and is formed from the remains of plankton and other microscopic plants and animal that lived in shallow seas
- When the organisms die they settle to the bottom of the shallow sea and are covered by sediment
Then over the years heat and pressure caused by the sediments make corpses into petroleum.
-the sediment rocks on top of the petroleum force the crude oil up to surface where rocks like shale trap it underground, forming an oil pool.

4. Extracting it from the earth
-Petroleum is taken from the ground using a well to pump the oil to the surface. Where’s there’s high pressure in the ground the drilling well creates a gusher of petroleum.
The Latin words for petroleum are petra and oleum. Petra means rock while oleum means oil.

5. Why is Petroleum so Important?
It makes jet fuel, gasoline, diesel fuel, crayons, polyester, asphalt (road paving), nylon, electricity in plants and used to heat homes.

6. Petroleum is NOT renewable because it take millions and millions of year to make. Saudi Arabia is the main supplier of oil. Petroleum is shipped by pipelines, boats and tucks and is held in barrels at about $110 a barrel (42 gallons = 1 barrel). Oil wells is not a clean profession but if managed correctly the oil rigs are safe. Many steps to refining but basically it gets distilled, vacuumed and non hydro-carbon substances are taken out.

7. What Caused the BP Oil Spill?
The oil spill was caused by a methane explosion and through they have cleaned out most of the spill they did not clean all of it.

8. History of oil wells The first oil well was dug in China in 347 C.E.
First modern well was in Asia 1848
1854- first oil well in Europe
1858 first oil well in Canada
1859- first oil well is USA (in PA)