Petroleum

Other negative environmental effects include direct releases, such as oil spills, as well as air and water pollution at almost all stages of use.

[8] After that, the term was used in numerous manuscripts and books, such as in the treatise De Natura Fossilium, published in 1546 by the German mineralogist Georg Bauer, also known as Georgius Agricola.

The I Ching, one of the earliest Chinese writings, cites that oil in its raw state, without refining, was first discovered, extracted, and used in China in the first century BCE.

[16] Crude oil was also distilled by Persian chemists, with clear descriptions given in Arabic handbooks such as those of Abu Bakr al-Razi (Rhazes).

The French General Louis-Joseph de Montcalm encountered Seneca using petroleum for ceremonial fires and as a healing lotion during a visit to Fort Duquesne in 1750.

[21] Early British explorers to Myanmar documented a flourishing oil extraction industry based in Yenangyaung that, in 1795, had hundreds of hand-dug wells under production.

Romania (then being a vassal of the Ottoman Empire) is the first country in the world to have had its annual crude oil output officially recorded in international statistics: 275 tonnes for 1857.

[32] Young eventually succeeded, by distilling cannel coal at low heat, in creating a fluid resembling petroleum, which when treated in the same way as the seep oil gave similar products.

[41] On January 16, 1862, after an explosion of natural gas, Canada's first oil gusher came into production, shooting into the air at a recorded rate of 480 cubic metres (3,000 bbl) per day.

[50] They led to sustained reductions in demand as a result of substitution to other fuels, especially coal and nuclear, and improvements in energy efficiency, facilitated by government policies.

[53] Petroleum's worth as a portable, dense energy source powering the vast majority of vehicles and as the base of many industrial chemicals makes it one of the world's most important commodities.

At the heavier end of the range, paraffin wax is an alkane with approximately 25 carbon atoms, while asphalt has 35 and up, although these are usually cracked in modern refineries into more valuable products.

In Canada, bitumen is considered a sticky, black, tar-like form of crude oil which is so thick and heavy that it must be heated or diluted before it will flow.

Due to such anaerobic bacteria, at first, this matter began to break apart mostly via hydrolysis: polysaccharides and proteins were hydrolyzed to simple sugars and amino acids respectively.

The mixture at this depth contained fulvic acids, unreacted and partially reacted fats and waxes, slightly modified lignin, resins and other hydrocarbons.

Combination happened in a similar fashion as phenol and formaldehyde molecules react to urea-formaldehyde resins, but kerogen formation occurred in a more complex manner due to a bigger variety of reactants.

The total process of kerogen formation from the beginning of anaerobic decay is called diagenesis, a word that means a transformation of materials by dissolution and recombination of their constituents.

A common secondary method is "waterflood" or injection of water into the reservoir to increase pressure and force the oil to the drilled shaft or "wellbore."

[87] Once extracted, oil is refined and separated, most easily by distillation, into numerous products for direct use or use in manufacturing, such as gasoline (petrol), diesel and kerosene to asphalt and chemical reagents (ethylene, propylene, butene, acrylic acid, para-xylene[88]) used to make plastics, pesticides and pharmaceuticals.

Oil accounts for a large percentage of the world's energy consumption, ranging from a low of 32% for Europe and Asia, to a high of 53% for the Middle East.

Source: CIA World Factbook[failed verification] As of 2018[update], about a quarter of annual global greenhouse gas emissions is the carbon dioxide from burning petroleum (plus methane leaks from the industry).

[144] Crude oil and refined fuel spills from tanker ship accidents have damaged natural ecosystems and human livelihoods in Alaska, the Gulf of Mexico, the Galápagos Islands, France and many other places.

[147] Because petroleum is a naturally occurring substance, its presence in the environment does not need to be the result of human causes such as accidents and routine activities (seismic exploration, drilling, extraction, refining and combustion).

A tarball is a blob of crude oil (not to be confused with tar, which is a human-made product derived from pine trees or refined from petroleum) which has been weathered after floating in the ocean.

Tarballs are an aquatic pollutant in most environments, although they can occur naturally, for example in the Santa Barbara Channel of California[149][150] or in the Gulf of Mexico off Texas.

[150] They are slowly decomposed by bacteria, including Chromobacterium violaceum, Cladosporium resinae, Bacillus submarinus, Micrococcus varians, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Candida marina and Saccharomyces estuari.

Economists have characterized OPEC as a textbook example of a cartel[175] (a group whose members cooperate to reduce market competition) but one whose consultations may be protected by the doctrine of state immunity under international law.

[184] A growing number of divestment campaigns from major funds pushed by newer generations who question the sustainability of petroleum may hinder the financing of future oil prospection and production.

On Saturn's largest moon, Titan, lakes of liquid hydrocarbons comprising methane, ethane, propane and other constituents, occur naturally.

Data collected by the space probe Cassini–Huygens yield an estimate that the visible lakes and seas of Titan contain about 300 times the volume of Earth's proven oil reserves.