WHAT IS PETROLEUM and where does it come from?
Where does it come from?
With Saskatchewan being the second largest petroleum producer among Canadian provinces, providing about 20% of all Canadian production, it is apparent that a lot of hard work is going on in the prairies. The most significant production in the province takes place in the Lloydminster, Kindersley-Kerrobert, Swift Current, and Weyburn-Estevan sectors.
According to the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, the Saskatchewan petroleum industry employs approximately 32,000 people each year but what exactly do these employees do and what are they producing?
How is it extracted from the ground?
The extraction of petroleum, which is the process of removing it from the earth, contains many steps. To locate the petroleum, geologists must search for geological structures that might be forming oil reservoirs. The most common mode of doing this is creating an underground explosion in a nearby area and watching the seismic response. Other instruments such as gravimeters and magnetometers are also sometimes used in the search for petroleum.
The oil well is then created by drilling a large hole into the area’s ground with an oil rig. From there, a pipe is placed down the hole to make the well structurally sound. After this process, a number of other valves are added for control. Once this is all completed, the extraction and recovery of petroleum can finally begin.
Where does it go next?
For those wondering where all this oil goes after the hard work of many employees, the answer surprisingly isn’t just into your car for gasoline and diesel fuel. The truth is petroleum plays a much bigger role in day to day life.
“What may surprise people is that a large number of drugs and pharmaceuticals have petroleum derivative components within them, right through to some of the modern style drugs that have coatings that make them slow release which also contains petroleum.“said Saskatchewan Research Council’s Vice-President of Energy, Mike Crabtree. “A little bit more disturbing for the general public may be that a small but significant amount of the food chain contains petroleum, such as synthetic colorants and some of the additives that add texture and thickness. This isn’t to scare people, because a great deal of care is taken to ensure that there is no contamination from components within the petroleum products that could cause problems.”
Although this may worry some and cause negative reactions, many tests have been done on these products prior to them hitting the shelves and entering homes. Some questions are still left unanswered, but the majority of petroleum based products are things everyone uses mindlessly.
“The food and drug regulator authorities test not only finished products but also component products of that,” assured Crabtree. “Anything that is brought forward as a potential additive goes through a range of tests. They test these things in terms of understanding if that type of chemical or molecule is likely to cause problems. Those problems could be anything from slight allergic reaction to obviously anything that is carcinogenic. These products are tested pretty rigorously. There’s a lot of knowledge and a huge database about how chemicals interact with the human food chain. ”
Anyone who uses make up or other body care products, has most likely covered their skin in petroleum based products. For example, people have been relying on petroleum jelly for decades as a versatile skincare product. It is used to speed up the healing of dry skin, as a face moisturizer, as a protector on fresh tattoos, and even as a lip balm. Surprisingly, some even claim that petroleum jelly could prevent wrinkles. Of course, petroleum isn’t just in petroleum jelly in regards to beauty. The oil can be found in hair dyes, shampoo, mascara, foundation, eye shadow and even perfume.
If you’ve touched any plastic today, you have witnessed one of the biggest uses of petroleum. All plastic is made from petroleum and can be found in toys, computers, phones and many other items in the home.
Driving a car relies heavily on petroleum. Of course, cars use petroleum to gas up, but the asphalt used in roads is also a petroleum product, as is the rubber that forms tires. “It’s almost difficult to talk about anything petroleum doesn’t touch in terms of directly as an energy source or as a component for its manufacturer or maintenance or operation,” Crabtree said. “But I think another thing that people may or may not be aware of is that petroleum is used for clothing, because pretty much all of the synthetic materials are petroleum based in terms of their composition and energy required to manufacture them.”
Other everyday objects containing petroleum include fertilizer, pesticides, herbicides, detergents, photographic film, furniture, paints, body lotion and much more.