As fuel, oil
was introduced to the world at the turn of the twentieth century (though it was
known to ancient people in many parts of the world, where crude oil naturally
seeped out of the ground). Although the initial discoveries of oil at a
commercial scale occurred as early as in the 1850s in Baku (Azerbaijan), Bend
(Romania), Oil Springs (Canada), and Titusville (Pennsylvania, USA), oil
started entering the world energy market after major oil field discoveries in
early 1900s in Texas, Oklahoma, California (USA), and in the 1920s–1940s in the
Middle East (Bahrain, Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia). The 1960s–1970s witnessed the
discovery of major oil fields in Alaska (USA) and North Sea areas (UK, Norway).
Unlike coal,
oil is liquid, which makes it more versatile, convenient, easily transportable,
and valuable primary fuel in a great variety of applications. It also has the
highest gravimetric and volumetric energy content among all fossil fuels: 46
MJ/ kg and 37 MJ/L, respectively (on average). Only two of these features make
oil an ultimate carbon fuel, surpassing in value all other types of fossil
fuels. Oil is the greatest gift given by Nature to humankind. Just to imagine what
would have happened if oil never existed on our planet and all that was
available to our predecessors were only coal and gas, in all likelihood, people
would have spent enormous resources to convert them into more convenient,
versatile, and energy-rich liquid hydrocarbon fuels (as some countries were
compelled to do that in a response to necessity).
The
introduction of oil and oil-derived products to the world market led to another
radical technological innovation: an internal combustion engine (ICE), which
revolutionized individual, commercial, and public transport through the use of
cars, buses, trucks, and first-generation aircrafts. Since mid-twentieth
century, oil assumed a dominant role at the energy market as the automotive,
petrochemical, and other oil-reliant industries have matured. As more and more
oil was discovered and gasoline and diesel fuel driven transportation was
rapidly expanding all over the world, oil’s share in the world’s total final
energy consumption steadily grew and reached 33 % in 2011. Because of its
unique properties and value, oil has become the world’s strategic commodity: it
is produced in a few oil-rich regions, but is shipped all over the world via
pipelines, railroads, and marine tankers. No wonder, oil is sometimes called “blood
of industry.”
Crude oil is
rarely used as is; so, the first step in its utilization by consumers is its
preprocessing and refining at large refineries, which transform crude oil into
a variety of products including motor fuels (gasoline, diesel fuel), aviation
fuels (jet fuel, kerosene), and heating oil, coke, and feedstocks for
petrochemical and chemical industries. Transportation sector has been and
remains the major consumer of oil-derived products (consuming more than half of
all petroleum products). In the USA, gasoline is the primary transportation fuel
(318.5 million gallons per day), followed by diesel fuel (153.1 million gallons
per day) and jet fuel (61.8 million gallons per day) (1 US gallon is equal to
3.8 l).
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