Energy Physics – SFG3033

Petroleum / Crude Oil

Prepared by:
Nur Nadia Mohamad Nasir (D20171078138)
Nuraini Mohd Razakafli (D20171078146)
 1.0 Introduction

- Petroleum means rock oil or oil from the earth

- Mixtures of hydrocarbons that formed from the remains of animals and plants
(diatoms) that lived millions of years ago in oceans, lakes, and swamps before
dinosaurs roamed the earth.

- Over millions of years, the remains of these animals and plants were covered by
layers of sand, silt, and rock. Heat and pressure from these layers turned the remains
crude oil or petroleum.

- Crude oil and other hydrocarbons exist in liquid or gaseous from in underground pools
or reservoirs, in tiny spaces within sedimentary rocks, and near the earth's surface in
tar (or oil) sands. Petroleum products are fuels made from crude oil and hydrocarbons
contained in natural gas.
- Petroleum products are fuels made from crude oil
and hydrocarbons contained in natural gas.

- After crude oil is removed from the ground, it is sent

to a refinery where different parts of the crude oil are
separated into useable petroleum products.

- These petroleum products include gasoline, distillates

such as diesel fuel and heating oil, jet fuel, petrochemical
feedstocks, waxes, lubricating oils, and asphal

- Petroleum products produced from

one 42-gallon barrel of oil input at U.S. refineries, 2019

- The total volume of products refineries produce (output) is greater than the volume of
crude oil that refineries process (input) because most of the products they make have
a lower density than the crude oil they process. This increase in volume is called
processing gain
2.0 Abundance / Renewability

• Found abundantly under Earth’s surface and tar pits, deepest

wells that are dug for extracting the oil (National Geographic,
2020).

• Non-renewable & unsustainable – having significant decrement

that the existence may diminish sooner or later (Shahzad (2012);
Mushtaq et al. (2013); Azeem et al. (2016); Jabarullah et al.
(2019)).

• The highest non-renewable energy resources found in Malaysia

(Sulaiman et al., 2011).
2.0 Abundance / Renewability

• It took millions of years for the crude oil to be formed again to be

extracted and refined in specific usable petroleum products
(Prince et al. (2017); Donev et al. (2019)).

• Reserves-to-production ratio (RPR)?

• According to BP Statistical Data of World Energy (2019):

− Malaysia RPR in 2018 – 12.1 years of current production.
− Global RPR in 2018 – 50 years of current production.
 Malaysia is grouped
within Asia Pacific (2nd
lowest rate of RPR)

Source:
https://www.bp.com/content/dam/bp/
business-sites/en/global/corporate/p
dfs/energy-economics/statistical-revi
ew/bp-stats-review-2019-oil.pdf
 3.0 Accessibility

- The crude oil must be “fractionated” into its various hydrocarbons.

This is done at the refinery.

- Oil can be used in many different products, and this is because of

its composition of many different hydrocarbons of different sizes,
which are individually useful in different ways due to their different
properties

- The purpose of a refinery is to separate and purify these different

components. Most refinery products can be grouped into three
classes
- Petroleum refineries change crude oil into petroleum products

● Seperation
- Light distillates (petroleum gas, naphtha, and gasoline)
- Middle distillates (kerosene and diesel )
- Heavy distillates (fuel oil, lubricating oil, waxes, and tar )

● Conversion
- , heavy, lower-value distillation fractions can be processed further into lighter,
higher-value products
- Cracking,uses heat, pressure, catalysts, and sometimes hydrogen to
crack heavy hydrocarbon molecules into lighter one.
(fluid catalytic cracking units and hydrocracking/hydrocracker units)

- Alkylation, for example, makes gasoline components

by combining some of the gaseous byproducts of cracking.

- Reforming uses heat, moderate pressure, and catalysts to turn naphtha,

a light, relatively low-value fraction, into high-octane gasoline components.
● Treatment
- To make gasoline, refinery technicians carefully combine a variety
of streams from the processing units

- Storage
Both incoming crude oil and the outgoing final products are stored
temporarily in large tanks on a tank farm near the refinery
4.0 Cost of Production

Countries Price of a barrel of crude oil (US$)

United Kingdom 52.50

Brazil 49

Canada 41

United States 36

Table 4.1: Production costs of a barrel of

Saudi Arabia (Kuwait) 10 crude oil (Hartford Business, 2015).

Iraq 10.70
4.0 Cost of Production

Source:
https://www.indexmundi.com/
commodities/?commodity=cr
ude-oil&months=12
 5.0 Safety

● Safe work practices and/or the use of appropriate personal protective equipment may be
needed for exposures to chemicals and other hazards such as heat, and during process
sampling, inspection, maintenance, and turnaround activities.

● Hard hats, safety glasses and goggles, safety shoes, hearing protection, respiratory
protection, and protective clothing such as fire resistant clothing where required

● In addition, procedures should be established to assure compliance with applicable

regulations and standards such as hazard communications, confined space entry, and
process safety management.

● Control of temperature, pressure, and reflux within operating device

● Consistent house keeping

● Stay on top machine maintenance
 6.0 Environmental Impacts
Habitat disruption and rejuvenation
01 How oil exploitation disrupt and rejuvenate
wildlife habitat

Oil spills
02 The effects on marine and coastal environment
as well as atmosphere

Greenhouse effect
03 The greenhouse gasses and how it may destroys
the Mother Earth
01 6.0 Environmental Impacts
Habitat disruption and rejuvenation
• Deforestation is notably occurring in order for the oil to be extracted.
− Loss of habitat for greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus; GrSG)
that inhabits the sagebrush (Artemisia sp.) ecosystems (Walker el al., 2020).

• Seismic surveys distraction in marine environment (Nowadeck et al., 2015).

− Decrement of marine life fitness for their survival (Carroll et al., 2017).
− Significant mortality zooplankton populations (McCauley et al.,2017) .
01 6.0 Environmental Impacts
Habitat disruption and rejuvenation
• Positive impacts from rigs-to-reefs initiative (Macreadie et al., 2011).
− Eight artificial reefs in South China Sea.
− The only Malaysia rig-to-reefs programme – Baram-8 (Mohd et al., 2020).

Figure 6.1: The condition of

Baram-8 artificial reefs ecosystem in
2012 (Awang, 2013).
Source:
https://cil.nus.edu.sg/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/7.-M
r.-Daud-Bin-AWANG-OIL-RIG-AS-ARTIFICIAL-REEF-
EXAMPLE-OF-BARAM-8.pdf
02 6.0 Environmental Impacts
Oil spills
• The Deepwater Horizon oil spill (April 20, 2010) killed 11 workers (Tainter &
Patzek, 2011) and sheer of wildlife throughout the Gulf of Mexico (NOAA
Fisheries, 2020).

• Oil spills lead to water pollution (Nabzar, 2011; Shahzad, 2012; Mekonnen,
2015)
− Rise the seabirds mortality notably (Troisi et al., 2016)
− Toxic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the ingested oil (Troisi et
al., 2016).
03 6.0 Environmental Impacts
Greenhouse effect
• The rise of CO2 (Chen et al., 2019).

• Infrared radiation trapped (Kweku et al., 2017).

• Global warming and climate change (Cuffey and Patterson, 2010).

 7.0 Ease of Conversion

In need of conversion for

functional products.

Using distillation unit.

Here, a denser product

requires higher
temperature.
 8.0 Conclusion

Petroleum is the minerals existed abundantly under Earth’s

surface and tar pits that bubble to the surface, petroleum even
can be found below the deepest wells that are dug for
extracting it. However, this kind of fossil fuels which are
mostly extracted and refined for various uses must be
preserved as it is a non-renewable energy. Hence, the précised
care and reservation of it must be made.