Oil – History, Extraction, Impacts, and Future

1. Brief History of Oil

• Early Uses:

  • Ancient civilizations used crude oil for waterproofing and medicine.

  • Industrial Age: Refined for lamps (kerosene) in the 1800s.

• Rise of Modern Oil Industry:

  • 1859: First commercial oil well (Pennsylvania, USA).

  • Late 1800s: Standard Oil, Shell, and BP dominated the market.

  • 20th Century:

    • Spindletop (1901): Texas oil boom made the U.S. a global leader (44% of production by 1950).

    • World Wars: Highlighted oil’s strategic importance.

    • OPEC (1960): Formed to counter Western control of oil prices.

2. Finding, Extracting, Using, and Transporting Oil

• Formation:

  • Created over millions of years from organic material trapped in rock reservoirs.

• Extraction:

  • Upstream Sector: Exploration (seismic surveys, drilling).

  • Midstream Sector: Transport (pipelines, tankers).

  • Downstream Sector: Refining (distillation into fuels, plastics, etc.).

• Key Technologies:

  • Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR): Methods like CO₂ injection to extract more oil.

  • Fracking: Horizontal drilling + hydraulic fracturing to access shale oil/gas.

  • Offshore Drilling: Expands access but raises environmental risks (e.g., spills).

3. Technologies to Reduce Negative Impacts

• Refining Improvements: Reduce sulfur emissions (e.g., "cleaner" gasoline).

• Carbon Capture: Experimental use in EOR to store CO₂.

• Spill Mitigation: Double-hulled tankers, better cleanup methods.

• Renewable Integration: Biofuels as partial substitutes.

4. Advantages & Disadvantages

5. Future Trends

• Declining Dominance:

  • Green tech (EVs, renewables) reduces demand long-term.

  • Peak Oil: Some predict demand will plateau by 2030–2040.

• Geopolitical Shifts:

  • OPEC’s influence may wane as renewables grow.

• Environmental Pressures:

  • Stricter regulations on fracking, offshore drilling.

  • Arctic Oil: Limited by extreme conditions and activism.