Rather than hijak the other thread I started this one:
If we are in the top 4 list of oil producing countries why are we so effected by OPEC pricing? I recall hearing of “sweet” oil and I was wondering if the time/expense to refine what we produce is what the problem is or if its political.
CandyMan
The problem is not the quality, but the quantity.
The U.S. uses so much petroleum that its own supplies are not enough. Hence, until we figure out a way to get by with less petroleum than we produce, we will ALWAYS be subject to OPEC’s whims.
As for the “sweetness” of oil … I know what you’re talking about, but I don’t know what the quality of the U.S.'s major sources is vs. foreign sources. I remember reading (John McPhee’s Annals of the Former World, I believe) that Western Pennsylvania–where oil was first pumped–had just about “perfect” crude. It had been “cooked” by millennia of heat and pressure to just the right, well, consistency–whereas oil from other regions was either “undercooked” or “burnt”. Of course, almost all of that Allegheny oil is now gone.
Sweet Crude refers to oil in its natural state that contains relatively little or no sulfur. This is contrasted with Sour Crude which contains higher amounts of sulfur.
As to the political aspect, of course some of the issues of consumption rely on politics. For instance, I believe the U.S. has a moratorium on drilling in the Alaska National Wildlife Reserve, which is supposed to have a pretty large untapped oil field. As this commodity becomes more precious, I’m certain we’ll tap into that field. I’m sure part of the thinking behind the moratorium is to preserve this oil for future use, as well as the currently stated environmental concerns.
The grade of oil refers to its purity. Besides sulfer, there are all kinds of other contaminants that can be present and it costs money and time to remove them. That’s why oil prices are benchmarked against a certain grade because the quality of oil varies from source to source. Venezuelan crude is about the worst in the world - it’s essentially just smelly sludge and it takes quite a bit of effort to refine. North Sea crude is generally of the highest quality, that’s why it’s refered to as being “sweet”. Most of the oil produced in the US is somewhere in between the two, so that’s why it’s called “West Texas Intermediate”
Another oil question-I used to know a guy who was an engineer for a large oil-fired power plant. he told me that every few months they would clean the smokestacks, and the stuff they removed was very valuble-it had a high content of vanadium. The sludge would be sold, and refined into the vanadium. Knowing that oil includes the remains of dinosaurs, just why did dino blood contain so much of the rare element?
Not dino blood. More like squished microscopic organisms. I’m afraid I don’t know about the vanadium, though … perhaps the oil leaches it out from the rocks in which it is found?
Vanadium - interesting.
Vanadium can be concentrated by certain organisms, notably sea squirts. From webelements:
Perhaps this tells us something about the actual organisms whose remains went into the oil (not neccesarily dinosaurs).
Sounds like there might be somebody in this thread who can answer this one for me.
Now I’m all in favor of preserving wildlife & if it were up to me we’d all be riding our bikes or taking rickshaws to work. I just don’t understand how an oil-drilling thingamajiggy makes such a serious impact to natural land (asuming we don’t spill the stuff all over the ground).
Now, bearing in mind that the only exposure to oil drilling facilities I’ve had is watching reruns of Dallas (who shot JR again?), as I understand it all we do is drill a hole in the ground, attach a pipline to it and pump the resulting oil to a refining station some miles away- am I in the ballpark here? If so, what exactly are we disturbing in the Alaskan reserve except for a hundred square meters or so where the pipe sticks out of the ground? It’s not like we’re strip mining or clearing acres of trees away (are we?).
I’m thinking about the offshore drilling here- a platform that (appears to) take up about one city block, maybe less. How can we get away with this in the water but not on land?
I await enlightenment.
The main thing they are worried about is spillage. We move the oil out of rock strata, so it was in no danger of mixing with the soil. But once it’s brought to the surface, there’s the danger that it could contaminate the soil and the local water table.
But also, you have to provide men, equipment, lodging, and roads. This takes up quite a bit more than a few hundred square meters. Also, roads don’t just disturb the narrow swath they cut, but also the hunting and migratory paths that they intersect. For some animals, you might as well build a mile-wide river in place of the road; they’ll cross neither.
For off-shore platforms, any spills are usually containable, since the oil floats on the water. And marine animals’ paths aren’t disturbed by the passing of men on boats on the surface.
AWB, Did you ever notice how BIG Alaska is?
As already posted, oil and coal being made from “dead dinosaurs” is yet another one of those “lies teachers tell kids”.
A lot of vanadium is also the result of leaching into the oil deposit from the surrounding minerals.
What was the name of this oil-fired plant? And why on earth did they have so much vanadium in their stack? Were they the only oil plant in the US without a precipitator? I think instead what he was referring to is that they were selling the flyash, which is commonly very high in vanadium when collected at oil and orimulsion plants, and is economically marketable.
Subject to the whims of OPEC? How about supply and demand. Greater energy efficiency, few ludicrously large SUVs and the oil consuming nations have less problems.
opus: At least if we ever really need the oil in Alaska, it’ll be there.
Have we forgotten about the Exxon Valdez already. Remember, big boat, tipsy Captain, little bump, oily wildlife.