Oil pros and cons

1. Plans for today
Oil and specifically the Keystone XL
pipeline and tar sands of Canada
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0Nlyu6E6oE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8VqWKZIPrM

2. What is your position on the Keystone
XL pipeline?

5. Nonrenewable Energy - OIL
Ch. 15

6. Most energy use is from nonrenewable fossil
fuels
– 76% from fossil fuels
– 6% from nuclear power
The rest (~18%)
comes from
renewable sources
like wind, biomass,
solar energy,
hydropower,
geothermal power

7. The Biggest Users
#1 - USA
#2 - China
#3 - European Union
Together they use more than
half of all fossil fuels
China’s per person use is
relatively low, but there are a
lot of people

9. Net Energy is the only energy
that really counts
Net energy - the
amount of high
quality energy
available from a
resource after
subtracting the
amount of energy
needed to produce it

10. Petroleum, aka crude
oil:
– the oil that comes out of
the ground
– Thick
– Contains 100s of
different hydrocarbons +
smaller amounts of
sulfur, oxygen, and
nitrogen impurities

11. Deposits of crude oil
often found in
sedimentary bedrock
in crust or under the
sea floor
Wells as deep as 7
miles are drilled into
the deposit and the oil
is pumped up to the
surface

13. Oil
exploration
drilling site
in the
Amazon

14. Crude oil transported to a
refinery
Broken down into
different components with
different boiling points
Oil refinery in TX

15. The refining process also produces
petrochemicals
– These are used as the raw materials in
• Industrial chemicals
• Cleaning fluids
• Pesticides
• Plastics
• Synthetic fibers
(like nylon, spandex)
• Paints
• Medicines
• And many more

16. Petrochemicals
Olefins
– Ex: ethylene, propylene
– Used to make plastic,
resins, fibers, lubricants,
gets, rubber
Aromatics:
– Ex: benzene, toluene
– Used to make
solvents, detergents,
adhesives, dyes,
plastics

17. OPEC
OPEC - Organization of Petroleum Exporting
Countries
13 countries
Have 60% of the world’s oil reserves

19. Price of oil went from $50 a barrel in 2005 to
$140 in 2008 (currently about $80)
As oil prices rise, the price of food and other
goods increases

21. What about the Alaskan
National Wildlife Refuge?
Only stretch of Alaska’s
coast NOT open to oil
and gas development
Tundra biome - very
fragile
Home to polar bears, arctic
foxes, musk oxen, peregrine
falcons
Important habitat for
migrating birds & caribou <--
one of the last great herds
left

23. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hey_W

24. The two sides of the debate
Pro-drilling
– Supported by elected
officials in Congress
from Alaska
– Will help economy
– Will help reduce our
dependence on foreign
oil
– Say that better
technology will help
maintain ecosystem,
unlike the damage
from the Prudhoe Bay
pipelines
Alaska
Congressman
Don Young
Former Rep. VP
candidate Sarah
Palin from
Alaska

25. Anti-drilling
– Geologists estimate enough oil
to supply US demand for just 7-
24 months
– Not worth degrading a fragile,
rare, and irreplaceable
ecosystem
– Improving engine efficiency by
just 1 mpg will save more oil
than we would get from ANWR
– Prudhoe Bay has suffered lots
of damage - in 2006 BP had a
spill there casting doubts that
companies claims that they will
be environmentally responsible

26. Pros and Cons
of using oil

27. Is Oil Sand the answer?
Oil sand, aka tar sand = mixture of
clay, sand, water, and bitumen -->
thick, sticky heavy oil with high sulfur
content

28. 75% of it found in N.E. Alberta, Canada
under a remote boreal forest biome

29. Also some in Venezuela, Colombia,
Russia, and Utah
Oil sands of Canada + Venezuela =
more than all the oil in Saudi Arabia

30. In order to harvest oil sand, the area must be strip mined:
– Forests cleared, wetlands drained, rivers diverted
– Remove overburden of soil, rock
– Giant electric shovels dig up sand and load it into trucks
– Transported to an upgrading plant to extract the bitumen by washing it
out with lots of fresh hot water
– This then transported to a refinery
– Creates huge pits - can see from space
– Toxic tailings stored in slurry ponds - can see from space
– Generates far more waste, water and air pollution than crude oil
– Takes 0.7 barrels of oil to make 1.0 barrels of oil

31. Is Oil Shale the answer?
Oil shale - rocks that
contains a solid oil called
kerogen
To extract:
– crush rocks
– superheat to get shale oil
– heat and process shale oil
to remove S, N, and other
impurities

32. USA has ~72% of the oil shale in CO, WY,
UT
Estimated that enough oil to equal 4x what
Saudi Arabia has right now
This would supply enough oil for Americans
for 110 years

33. But…most of it is locked up in super low
grade ore
Takes tremendous amounts of fresh water to
produce and it is in arid regions
Takes digging up and processing 1 ton of
rock to make just 1 barrel of oil
Currently not profitable to harvest it

34. So…are oil sands
and oil shales the
answer?
In your opinion…
should we
develop these
resources? Why?