Reading the Geologic History

Petroleum and Your Community Think About It Date Page R53 Page #  What percentage of oil used every day in the United States is produced in the United States?  Where are oil and natural gas found in the United States? 2

Petroleum and Your Community Investigate Part A Date Pages R54-55 Page # 1a. Construct a graph of U.S. petroleum production, foreign petroleum imports and petroleum consumption. Extrapolate the date for 20 years.

2a. Describe how domestic production has changed during the 45- year period. About when did it peak?

2b. Describe how petroleum imports have changed during that period.

2c. Describe how total petroleum consumption has changed over the period.

2d. In what year did the U.S. begin to import more petroleum than it produced? 3

2e. What percentage of the total petroleum consumption was met by domestic production in 1954? In 1999? How does this compare to your answer to the first Think About It question?

2f. How many barrels of petroleum per person per day were needed in the U.S. in 1954? In 1999?

2g. Convert your answer in step 2f to gallons per person per day needed in the U.S. in 1954 vs. 1999.

2h. Has the consumption of petroleum changed at the same rate as the growth in population? what might account for the changes?

2i. Calculate the average well yield for oil production in the U.S. 4

3a. Extrapolate the three curves to the year 2020. explain your reasoning For each of the three curves.

3b. How much petroleum will be produced domestically, imported into the U.S. and consumed in the year 2010? In 2020?

3c. Identify several factors that might make the actual curves for production, import and consumption different from what you have predicted. 5

Petroleum and Your Community 6

Investigate Part B Date Page R56 Page #

1a. Are oil and gas deposits distributed evenly across the country?

1b. Which states have no oil or gas production?

1c. What patterns or trends do you see in oil- producing and gas- producing regions? 1d. Are oil and gas 7 always found together? give at least two examples.

1e. What is the relationship between oil and gas production and sedimentary basins?

2a. How far is your community from the nearest oil field?

2b. How far is your community from the nearest gas field?

2c. How far from your community is the nearest refinery located?

2d. Do you think the factors above might affect the price of petroleum products in your community? Explain. 8

Petroleum and Your Community Investigate Part C Date Page R57 Page # 1. Investigate trends in petroleum and natural gas production, consumption and distribution in your state.

2a. How have oil and gas consumption in your state changed during the last 40 years? How can you use the data to predict future needs?

2b. How much petroleum is consumed per capita in your state? How much natural gas is consumed? how can you use this information to predict how much oil and gas your community will need 20 years from now if the population grows by 20%?

2c. How do oil and gas reach your community? 9

If switching to another type of fuel in the future, how will these resources get to your community if they are not local? 10

Petroleum and Your Community Digging Deeper Date Pages R58-60 Page # Petroleum an oily, flammable liquid, (crude oil) consisting of a variety of organic compounds, that is produced in sediments and sedimentary rocks during burial of organic matter; also called crude

Natural gas a gas, consisting mainly of methane, that is produced in sediments and sedimentary rocks during burial of organic matter

Generation of oil the raw material is organic matter and natural gas (the remains of tiny plants and animals that live in oceans and lakes and settle to the muddy bottom before they die)

As layers of sediments cover the remains, the pressure and temperature increase, causing some of the organic matter to be transformed into oil and gas 11

http://www.hk- phy.org/energy/power/source_phy/flash/formation_e.html

Source rocks sedimentary rocks, containing significant concentrations of organic matter, in which petroleum and natural gas are generated during burial of the deposits

Oil and gas rise slowly and percolate through source rocks

Much of the oil and gas rise all the way to Earth’s surface, to form oil and gas seeps, and escape to the atmosphere or produce tar mats

Seal an impermeable layer or mass of sedimentary rock that forms the convex upward top or roof of a petroleum reservoir 12

A seal detains oil and gas in their upward travel

Reservoir a large body of porous and permeable sedimentary rock that contains economically valuable petroleum and/or natural gas 13

b r o u g 14

s u r f a c e

d r i l l i n g

w e l l s

i n t o

r e s e r v o i r 16

Nonrenewable oil and gas are considered nonrenewable because the generation of petroleum operates on time scales far longer than human lifetimes

Useful fuels oil and gas are useful fuels for several reasons:

1. they have a very high heat content per weight 2. they cost less than coal to transport and are fairly easy to transport 3. they can be refined easily to form many kinds of useful materials

Feedstock raw materials (for example, petroleum that is supplied to a machine or processing plant that produces manufactured material)

Examples •plastics •paints •medicines 17

•insecticides •fertilizers

U.S. energy the overall pattern has been that of

consumption exponential growth

U.S. petroleum in 1920, the U.S. produced more production than ⅔ of the world’s oil

By 1998, it supplied only 12% 18

Sedimentary basins an area of the Earth’s crust where sediments accumulate to great thicknesses

Most of these basins in the U.S. have already been explored and exploited

Some people estimate that the U.S. has less than 35% of its original oil remaining

Petroleum and Your Community Check Your Understanding Date Page R60 Page # 1. What is the origin of oil and natural gas?

2. Why do some people refer to the present times as the “petroleum age?”

3. What are the advantages of petroleum and natural gas as fuels? 19

4. Why are oil and gas considered nonrenewable resources?

Petroleum and Your Community Understanding and Applying Date Page R61 Page # 1. What is the world’s future supply of petroleum relative to world demand?

2. Is the future decrease in petroleum production likely to be abrupt or gradual? Explain.

3a. Calculate the average yield per well in barrels of petroleum per day for 20 each year in the table.

3b. Graph the total number of wells producing and the average well yield over time.

3c. Describe any relationships that you see. How is well yield changing over time?

4a. How might tax incentives for switching to renewable energy resources affect oil and gas consumption rates in the future?

4b. How might a change in the cost of fuels affect consumption rates in the future?

4c. How might new discoveries of oil affect domestic production? 21

4d. Identify two other factors that you think might affect one of your three projections.

Petroleum and Your Community Inquiring Further Date Page R61 Page # 1. U.S. oil and gas fields

Research one of the top ten U.S. oil and gas fields. Why are these fields so large? What is the geologic setting? 22 when was oil or gas discovered? What is the production history of the field? How much oil and gas remains?