As soon as we hear the word “Petroleum “or “Oil”, the neurons in our brain tend to collectively respond towards the negative associations related to it.
However, petroleum derived products play a huge role in our life and their importance cannot be emphasized enough.
Crude oil extracted from the subsurface in its original state is not typically capable of direct use, and hence sent to a refinery to split into useful components. Subsequently, these portions are utilized in myriad of applications and play a vital role in everyday life.
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| The industrial use of crude oil |
The graphic below (Fig: What's in a barrel of oil) is a typical representation of what percentage of various components can be extracted from a barrel of crude oil. Although, the major production is associated to gasoline and other fuels required for transportation, nevertheless, there exist multiple other uses if we delve into details of the smaller components.
Ultimately, this shows us that there is much more to crude oil than transportation alone. Accordingly, and this might come as a surprise to many that everyday essentials being used today involves crude oil derived components in one way or another.
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| Not limited to just Gasoline |
Many of us are driven by the negative spotlight on petroleum and at the same time, however we are usually unaware of the impact that petroleum derived products are playing in our daily lives.alert-warning
This goes beyond the typical usage of gasoline and diesel fuels for transportation and is deeply engraved in the things we use multiple times a day. A perfect illustration of this can be found here.
Let’s focus on three key areas in which petroleum derived products play a pivotal role:
Daily Essentials
Most of us wake up in the morning and the very first thing we do is use a toothbrush and toothpaste to perform essential oral care routine. Interestingly, toothpastes use mixture of dyes and copolymers during their manufacturing process. In addition, toothbrush uses synthetic nylon bristles and plastic handles, both being crude oil by-products. Therefore, the next time you clean your teeth, remember the role oil and gas industry plays in it!
Once we freshen up and prepare ourselves to embrace the daily routine, we pick up an attire for the day and unless you use 100% woolen or cotton fabric, it is likely that your wardrobe is stocked with synthetic polymer-based clothing goods. These include a major portion of polyester material; however, it also includes nylon, and acrylics among other.
According to one fiber material report, synthetic fibers made up to 63% of the global production in 2019.
An important consequence of this is that petroleum supports advancement in the textile industry by providing high quality materials to produce fabrics that caters to variable needs and fashion desires.
In medical facilities something as trivial as medicine containers to vital lifesaving equipment such as ventilators are being made from petroleum products, the role of petroleum and its derived products cannot be emphasized enough. Moreover, fossil fuels are at the fore front of the pharmaceutical industry and its fight against Covid-19 according to an article by Forbes.
To put things into perspective, the infographic below is presented which summarizes the role hydrocarbons play in driving the smallest to the most important part of our daily life.
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| Petroleum products in daily life |
Petroleum in the Food, Water, Energy Nexus
Production of large-scale ammonia and improved synthetic fertilizers is playing a vital role in ensuring food security for the growing population in today’s era. Indeed, this is largely attributed to the petroleum derived solutions of integrated petrochemical fertilizers (Zalewski, 2020).
In addition, pesticides play an important role to ensure health of the crops are at par with food standards, also these pesticides are all oil-driven formulations. alert-success
Furthermore, the whole food supply chain is driven by fossil fuels, for example the need to provide fuel to drive the machinery and tractors to ensure timely delivery of fresh produce to urban centers (Church, 2005).
The modern food industry’s reliance on fossil fuels, as a source of direct energy and indirect agriculture processes management such as transportation and crop management, is well defined (Woods et al., 2010). Accordingly, it can be illustrated that the impact of fossil fuels as an energy component in the nexus as shown below (Scanlon et al., 2017) is at the backbone of present-day food security.
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| Impact of fossil fuels as an energy component in the nexus |
Crude Oil to Chemicals (COC)
Traditional refineries are usually configured to produce 5-20% of petrochemicals from the crude oil feed. This, however, is changing dynamically with the advent of technology allowing for greater proportion of petrochemicals to be generated.
According to a recent article by WoodMackenzie, petrochemicals will be a major sector for the demand of crude oil as shown by the projections in the figure below.
Accordingly, this depicts that even if we see a decrement in usage of fuel in transportation industry, there is an important sector picking up pace to consume the production of hydrocarbons. Ultimately, this goes on to show that petroleum will continue to play a key role in the future of energy transition and the road to sustainable energy.
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| Trend graph of crude oil's demand |
In a nutshell, petroleum and its derived products have not only been pivotal to industrial growth in the past, in addition, it will continue to play a vital role in adding value to human life in the future. Irrespective of the scale of application, we are dependent on petroleum from the most trivial to the grandest aspect of our lives. Therefore, it is the need of time to highlight key positive areas with respect to the impact oil & gas industry has on human development.
REFERENCES
Chevron, 2020. what’s in a barrel of oil? [WWW Document]. Chevron El Segundo. URL https://elsegundo.chevron.com/our-businesses/whats-in-a-barrel-of-oil (accessed 11.11.20).code-boxChurch, N.J., 2005. WHY OUR FOOD IS SO DEPENDENT ON OIL [WWW Document]. Resil. - Post Carbon Inst. URL https://www.resilience.org/stories/2005-04-01/why-our-food-so-dependent-oil/ (accessed 11.1.20).code-boxCOGA, 2019. Everyday Products & Uses [WWW Document]. COGA Fact Sheets. URL https://www.coga.org/factsheets/everyday-products-uses (accessed 11.11.20).code-boxEIA, 2020. Oil and petroleum products explained [WWW Document]. U.S Energy Inf. Adm. URL https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/oil-and-petroleum-products/refining-crude-oil-the-refining-process.php (accessed 11.11.20).code-boxOil and Gas 101: What’s in a barrel of oil? [WWW Document], 2019. . About Pipeline Blog. URL https://www.aboutpipelines.com/en/blog/oil-and-gas-101-whats-in-a-barrel-of-oil/ code-boxPayal Baheti, 2020. How Is Plastic Made? A Simple Step-By-Step Explanation [WWW Document]. Br. Plast. Fed. URL https://www.bpf.co.uk/plastipedia/how-is-plastic-made.aspx (accessed 11.11.20).code-boxPetrochemical: The True Synthetic Fabric And Why Is All The Rage? [WWW Document], 2020. . MOT Int. URL https://motinternational.com/petrochemical-the-true-synthetic-fabric-and-why-is-all-the-rage/ code-boxScanlon, B.R., Ruddell, B.L., Reed, P.M., Hook, R.I., Zheng, C., Tidwell, V.C., Siebert, S., 2017. The food-energy-water nexus: Transforming science for society. Water Resour. Res. 53, 3550–3556. https://doi.org/10.1002/2017WR020889 code-boxWoods, J., Williams, A., Hughes, J.K., Black, M., Murphy, R., 2010. Energy and the food system. Philos. Trans. R. Soc. B Biol. Sci. 365, 2991–3006. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2010.0172 code-boxZalewski, A., 2020. Petroleum in Real Life: Food, Fertilizer and Fuel [WWW Document]. Context Energy Examined. URL https://context.capp.ca/articles/2020/pirl-fertilizers (accessed 11.1.20).code-box
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