Page 32 - Introduction to Petroleum Engineering

16 INTRODUCTION

Oil‐importing countries can attempt to minimize their dependence on imported
oil by developing technologies that reduce the cost of alternative energy. If an oil‐
importing country contains mature oil reservoirs, the development of relatively
inexpensive technologies for producing oil remaining in mature reservoirs or the
imposition of economic incentives to encourage domestic oil production can be used
to reduce the country’s dependence on imported oil.

1.5 PETROLEUM AND THE ENVIRONMENT

Fossil fuels—coal, oil, and natural gas—can harm the environment when they are
consumed. Surface mining of coal scars the environment until the land is reclaimed.
Oil pollutes everything it touches when it is spilled on land or at sea. Pictures of wild-
life covered in oil or natural gas appearing in drinking water have added to the public
perception of oil and gas as “dirty” energy sources. The combustion of fossil fuels
yields environmentally undesirable by‐products. It is tempting to conclude that fossil
fuels have always harmed the environment. However, if we look at the history of
energy consumption, we see that fossil fuels have a history of helping protect the
environment when they were first adopted by society as a major energy source.
Wood was the fuel of choice for most of human history and is still a significant
contributor to the global energy portfolio. The growth in demand for wood energy
associated with increasing population and technological advancements such as the
development of the steam engine raised concerns about deforestation and led to a
search for new source of fuel. The discovery of coal, a rock that burned, reduced the
demand for wood and helped save the forests.
Coal combustion was used as the primary energy source in industrialized societies
prior to 1850. Another fuel, whale oil, was used as an illuminant and joined coal as
part of the nineteenth‐century energy portfolio. Demand for whale oil motivated the
harvesting of whales for their oil and was leading to the extinction of whales. The dis-
covery that rock oil, what we now call crude oil, could also be used as an illuminant
provided a product that could be substituted for whale oil if there was enough rock oil
to meet growing demand. In 1861, the magazine Vanity Fair published a cartoon
showing whales at a Grand Ball celebrating the production of oil in Pennsylvania.
Improvements in drilling technology and the discovery of oil fields that could provide
large volumes of oil at high flow rates made oil less expensive than coal and whale oil.
From an environmental perspective, the substitution of rock oil for whale oil saved the
whales in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Today, concern about the harmful
environmental effects of fossil fuels, especially coal and oil, is motivating a transition
to more beneficial sources of energy. The basis for this concern is considered next.

1.5.1 Anthropogenic Climate Change
One environmental concern facing society today is anthropogenic climate change.
When a carbon‐based fuel burns in air, carbon reacts with oxygen and nitrogen in
the air to produce carbon dioxide (CO ), carbon monoxide, and nitrogen oxides
2