NAME AND SURNAME: Mauro Marchionno

ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT

1. Observe the diagram above describing the rate of crude oil production and import in the US
during the last decades.
 Describe what happened to the rate of production and import between 1990 and
2008.
As we can see in the image, in 1990, the production of crude oil began to decrease over
time. In addition, imports began to increase in 1990 until 2008 onwards
What happened after 2008 until nowadays?
 Starting in 2008, US crude oil production. USA It continued to grow, but net imports
decreased more and more.
Can you state the reasons of the trend in the last decade (2010-2020)? What do you think
has happened? And which consequences do you think has given to the US economy?
 A new extraction method called fracking began to be implemented. Thanks to this,
oil production during the last ten years began to increase. The fracking technique has
been known since the 1940. However, only in the past 10 years has there been a
significant "boom" in fracking, especially in the United States. This is because many
conventional natural gas resources in America and the European continent have been
 depleted. Therefore, the prices of natural gas and other fuels are rising steadily.
Significantly more complicated and expensive methods such as fracking have now
become attractive and profitable. Meanwhile, fracking has already been used more
than a million times in the U.S. alone.

2. Which are the main environmental problems related to the use of oil as source of energy
production?
 In fracking extraction, the main risk lies in the contamination of drinking water
sources. Fracking not only consumes large amounts of fresh water, but the water also
becomes polluted and very toxic. The contamination is so severe that the water
cannot even be cleaned by treatment. In addition, it causes soil contamination, since
the contamination is such that it kills animals and plants. It pollutes the air by the
toxic gases that come out, this also causing global warming.
3. What happens to crude oil after extraction during the process called down-stream? Which
refined products are obtained from this process and for which use are they destined?
 Crude oil must be refined to achieve various substances. They are classified
depending on the boiling points, which is done thanks to a fractional distillation
process. The crude oil is heated in an oven until it evaporates, these vapors enter a
distillation tower where they condense and classify depending on their temperature.
Thanks to this process we can obtain various products: gas and LPG used to operate
gas cars, used gasoline for the gasoline engine, virgin naphtha used in the chemical
industry and for the production of plastic, diesel for diesel engines, for home heating
and electricity production, kerosene and finally oils used as lubricants.