Exploring Our Industrial Heritage: Texas Oil (Part II)
The Permian Basin Petroleum Museum in Midland Texas showcases the deep heritage of our petroleum industry. From fossil formation to end consumer, its all here. Read all about it! (Part I starts here: Exploring Our Industrial Heritage: Texas Petroleum -Part I)
How Did the Crude Get There?
The Permian Basin, where all of this crude oil has accumulated, was once a warm, shallow sea. Sea life thrived there for over 200 million years. The life forms included not only fish and plants but also billions of microscopic creatures that absorbed energy from the sun into their carbon-based organic structures.
Layers and layers of these organisms lived and died and covered the seabed with organic matter. Over vast spans of geological time, sediment covered it too. The Permian Sea slowly dried-up, heated and pressurized. This process converted the once living organisms into crude oil and hardened the seabed above the crude, trapping the oil in a massive underground reservoir.
The Growing Demand for Oil
While the history of man’s usage of crude oil and oil drilling itself dates back nearly 2000 years, demand for oil changed over time as technology advanced. In earlier centuries, oil was indeed valuable, but not for the same reasons it is today.
In previous centuries, crude was primarily processed and separated into kerosene and sold as lamp oil. Horse drawn wagons delivered small tank carts full of kerosene to small towns and cities and it was used by people to light lanterns in their homes at night. As the kerosene was separated from the crude, the other oil byproducts, such as gasoline were disposed as unneeded forms of the product.
As the industrial revolution progressed, the demand for oil grew. Machine lubrication was a requirement for machine-based production. With the invention of the oil burner, Kerosene eventually became a standard source for home heating, replacing coal stoves. Finally, the invention of and mass production of the automobile drove the demand for gasoline to new never-ending heights of usage. Worldwide oil dependency was solidified.
Moving from the turn of the 19th century into the roaring 20’s and through the great depression, oil and gas demand transitioned from ‘convince products” to “required for human life products”. Oil and gas literally fueled the world’s industrial revolution and advanced humankind to new levels of existence.
Oil is a key component of plastics and after World War II, plastics became part of our daily lives. Today, petroleum-based products are now found in every facet of our modern society. The demand for oil is undeniable and seemingly unstoppable. Although we seek alternatives, there is no doubt that oil still fuels our modernization.
Think about it. The toothbrushes we use in the morning, the yogurt containers we eat from, the shoes we put on, the cars we drive, the roads we drive on, the computers we type at, the wall paint we look at, the roofs that protects us and the endless number of other products that all contain petroleum. Amazingly enough, our daily existence is tied to prehistoric sea life in the now liquid form of crude oil.
What About Your Factory?
Could your factory operate without petroleum-based products. I can say with certainty, that I have never been exposed to a manufacturing process that didn’t rely on some form of it. The scope of factory usage includes a wide range of forms, from the basic raw material components, cleaning products, fuel and machine lubricants. So not only do our households require an endless array of petroleum products, our factories and businesses do to. Like it or not, the fabric of our modern lives requires oil and gas products.
Exploring the Process from Crude to Usable
If you work in manufacturing, then you know that every process looks simple on the surface, but with high-volume processing and finished product variety, comes manufacturing complexity. Petroleum processing is no different. There is complexity at every step in the process.
At the top level, it’s simple. Drill for oil, transport it, separate the products, convert the products, treat them and ship them. I’m sure you can appreciate the complexities involved in each of these steps though.
Drilling alone starts with simply finding the oil and finding the oil requires experts, specifically knowledgeable geologists. Then comes the complexity of drilling 11,000 – 16,000 feet down into the earth, through a variety of bedrocks using diamond hard drill bits. Skilled drillers do this work. The refining process requires teams of engineers including not only degreed petroleum engineers, but chemical engineers and mechanical engineers as well. The supply-chain logistics of the entire process has its own level of complexity too. Maintaining a steady flow from drilling and through refining to customers worldwide requires the relentless attention of an army of supply chain managers.
Let’s face it, we all take our petroleum products for granted. We want what we want when we want it. When gas prices are high, it hurts us and we complain. We like to demonize the oil companies and their executives. At times, our complaints are warranted but ultimately, we should appreciate the conveniences that petroleum provides us and the people who provide it.
Is It Sustainable?
I don’t think we will ever totally divorce ourselves from fossil fuels. But I hope and believe that we can develop technologies and alternatives that will reduce our demand for it. But regardless of our future and the place petroleum holds within that future, it will always be the cornerstone of our industrial heritage.
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