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Oil is derived from crude oil which is comprised of hydrocarbons, nitrogen, oxygen and some sulfur impurities. A single barrel of oil translates to approximately 42 United States gallons and is capable of providing as much as 63 percent of Btu. There are crude oil reserves all over the world, but as much as 63 percent of all known reserves are found in the Middle East alone. Of all of the oil that is consumed within the United States, most of it is used specifically for transportation, though it is also used for commercial, industrial and residential purposes.
Crude oil is used for many different purposes, including for the production of a range of different fuels. Crude oil is also used for petrochemical ingredients that go into the creation of inks, plastics, tires and other products, including personal care products and pharmaceutical products.
Oil is typically recovered by way of drilling wells into non-porous rocks which form a barrier, trapping the toil inside. Approximately 30 percent of all the oil trapped inside is capable of being recovered economically by way of pumping. Then there is a secondary form of recovery that is capable of removing another 10 percent of oil. The way that this is achieved is by flooding the oil well using a high-pressure stream of gas or water. Sometimes there are also tertiary methods of recovering oil from rock. By heating the oil, an additional 10 percent of it can be scrubbed out as well. Unfortunately, about half of the total amount of oil is left behind because it is trapped in the rock. Luckily, oil producers are constantly working to find new and economical methods for recovering the trapped oil.
Oil is just one of the numerous fossil fuels that we rely on daily. Fossil fuels have a hold on us because we rely on them for so many different purposes. As time goes on, it seems that our need for oil and other fossil fuels is growing, even though our supply of these fossil fuels is shrinking. Will we eventually run out of fossil fuels?
