Oil Energy

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Although some out there may consider oil and other petroleum products to be a recent discovery, its history can be traced back thousands of years. In the days of Babylon, oil products were used in the form of asphalt for the construction of towers and walls within and around the city.

One of the earliest known oil fields to be drilled was in China in the 4th century. It was here that the people of the time used the extracted oil to burn a brine mixture in order to produce salt, the major currency of its time. Other records show that during this time as well, people in China and Japan used natural gas as ways for heating and lighting within their cities.

Further on in history, natural oil fields were discovered in the Middle East and during the 9th century, the streets of Baghdad were paved with tar coming from the local oil fields. Later on, additional fields were discovered in the region along with Romania and into Eastern Europe.

The first known accounts of oil within the U.S. can be traced back to 1632, when a Franciscan, Joseph de la Roche d'Allion, traveled to New York and viewed the oil springs within that region. It was not until 1859 when the petroleum industry was introduced, with Edwin Drake’s discovery of oil in Titusville, Pennsylvania.

From that single well, Drake, working for Seneca Oil Company, was able to produce 25 barrels of oil per day. With the industrial revolution in full swing, the need for petroleum-based products flourished, as the demand for kerosene and lamp oils skyrocketed.

With the introduction of the internal combustion engine in the early 20th century, demand for oil and petroleum products began to outpace supply, thus leading to the “oil boom” in Texas, California and Oklahoma.

Today, petroleum products account for more than 40% of the total energy consumed throughout the U.S. However, despite the massive usage of oil, petroleum only accounts for 2% of the electricity produced throughout the country.

Oil, and its related products, are a valuable and expensive commodity because of its dense energy source, which can be used for a variety of applications.

Once crude oil has been refined, numerous products are produced. Included in those are liquid petroleum, gasoline, diesel fuel, asphalt, tar and lubricating oils. Nearly 84% of all raw crude is refined into these products.

The remaining 16% of the raw crude is used for additional purposes, including many chemical products, fertilizers, solvents, pharmaceuticals, plastics and pesticides.

Due to oil’s relative abundance, ease of transportation of the product and its high energy density, oil has become the nation’s and the world’s most valued commodity since the turn of the 20th century.

The oil industry has advanced by leaps-and-bounds since the start of the industrial revolution. It has become a staple of industrialized countries around the world. With fuel oil and gasoline as the major products of the petroleum industry, companies and countries alike, have spent billions in programs and initiatives to further explore, extract, refine, transport and market these petroleum products.

Looking ahead, the future of petroleum as the leading source for the world’s fuel consumption remains controversial. Some analysts believe that there is only about 35 or 40 years worth of raw crude remaining in the Earth’s ground. This may lead to some of the “super powers” to invest more time and money into the research and development of alternative fuels.

With the peak of oil discoveries occurring in 1965, the production of oil has outpaced the discovery of new oil reserves every year since 1980. It is inevitable that the rate of production will coincide with the rate of decline in production once the world’s reserves are exhausted.