The impact of environmental concerns on oil production
One gallon of petroleum based motor fuel produces 22.3 pounds of CO2. In 2007, 3.4 billion barrels, or 45% of U.S. domestic consumption, went towards the production of gasoline. As a result, U.S. drivers consumed 470 billion gallons of gasoline at an average pace of 57.7 million gallons per day. That’s almost 10.5 trillion pounds of carbon emissions from U.S. drivers alone. These types of issues relating to the environment and greenhouse gases have rapidly evolved into political and social hot topics. The debate currently going on is in direct relation to the trade off costs associated with using green technologies amidst a global economic slowdown. Personal opinions on this argument may fall on either end of the spectrum, or somewhere in the middle. Either way, the trends for growth in alternative energies and reduction in carbon emissions aren’t going away soon, and they will have significant implications on the crude market. Negative environmental effects of the global oil industry aren’t exclusive to end goods such as motor oil, plastics and other petrochemicals. In actuality, the process of exploring, producing, and transporting oil all have an impact on the environment.
The initial oil exploration process is done so with geophysics and tools such as magnetic and gravity surveys. If potential formations that could contain an oil reservoir are discovered, seismic surveys are used to give a more in depth view of the underground regions. Most of this technology has very little effect on the land, although sometimes the seismic surveys are done by setting off explosives near the research site. The majority of the carbon costs associated with these are relative to the means of transporting the equipment and personal. If the seismic surveys gave more conclusive evidence of a potential oil field, exploration wells will be dug. This is where the environmental effects start to show up. The drilling process alone has a consequence on the habitats. There are also chemicals used in the process, including acid injection into the ground which has a more widespread effect. The same carbon effects of the exploration well are prevalent on a higher level in the production and extraction process.
After the oil is pulled from the ground it needs to be transported by truck, pipeline or super tanker. Using tanker trucks is the least efficient and has a greater environmental effect of the three methods of transportation. That’s when everything is going accident free, but that’s not how it always works out. There have been a handful of pipeline explosions over the past several years that resulted in the release of harmful emissions from burnt fuel and 100s of thousands of carbon based fuel spilt. These occurrences are the result of standard pipeline erosion as well as human intervention. Tanker spills are one of the most publicly noted environmental risks associated with oil production. The infamous Exxon Valdez tanker crash resulted in 10.8 million gallons of oil that was dumped into the ocean. Cleaning up an oil spill of this size is both expensive and time consuming. Although rare in occurrence, oil tanker spills have a devastating impact on the environment. Certain aspects of the oil industry will come and go with political favor. These changing trends will have significant implications on the crude market.
(US DOE EIA: Products Supplied)
(US DOE EIA: Refiner Motor Gasoline Sales Volume)
(USA Environmental Protection Agency)
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