Where does oil come from? Science answers!

Oil, a byproduct of nature, has been responsible for thousands of controversies, deaths and wars. It is not surprising that some countries have so far protected their oil reserves ‘tooth and nail’, despite knowing that they are one of the main responsible for the advancement of climate change. In fact, investors in the sector in many parts of the world call the natural by-product ‘black gold’.

Oil is one of the most popular fossil fuels on the market, but there are also coal and natural gas, among other types. Currently, it is true that if these energy sources disappeared overnight, most cars would become unusable, many electrical grids would stop working, and many industries would collapse. Therefore, humanity still needs to provide more resources that include different types of clean and renewable energy.

But one day the bills will come and oil will disappear because people extract it and use it. Finally, In order for nature to produce matter, natural resources must go through an extremely complex process that may take several million years.

Many people believe that oil is a fossil fuel that emerged directly from dinosaur fossils. But Earth’s biochemical process doesn’t exactly work that way; it’s really based on natural fossils, But know that you do not fill your vehicle with ‘liquid dinosaur’ in the form of gasoline.

To explain a little better where oil comes from, TecMundo gathered information from scientists and experts in the field. Check out!

Where does oil come from?

According to historical information, oil has been used since the beginning of great civilizations; in Egypt, for example, people were already using this material for road paving, lubrication, lighting, among other uses. Despite this, major industry began using oil as we know it after refining in the mid-19th century – initial production in the United States only began in 1859.

The first oil fields in Brazil were discovered in Bahia in 1939. From 1954, Petrobras began to operate and explore the national industry based on materials. In 2010, Brazilians began using presalt, a type of oil reserves found beneath a thick layer of salt.

As we explained before, oil does not consist of dinosaur fossils; This information is almost a myth. The transformation of fossil fuel into this state goes through a long natural process. The decomposition of organic matter such as algae, bacteria, plants and plankton that died millions of years ago and accumulated in layers below the surface.

During this long period, decomposed organic materials are buried by rocks and sediments and remain trapped for hundreds of millions of years. During this process, the low oxygen content, high temperature and pressure in the planet’s core ‘cook’ these materials, resulting in what we know as oil.

After organic materials accumulate beneath sedimentary layers, heat and pressure form a substance called kerogen. Shift, Kerogen will break down into molecules of carbon and hydrogen until the dark, viscous liquid that provides gasoline emerges..

“For some strange reason, the idea that oil comes from dinosaurs has stuck in many people’s minds. But oil comes from trillions of tiny algae and plankton. When the algae and plankton in the sea died, they sank to the bottom of the sea… It sounds great to say that oil is a kind of dinosaur soup, but that’s complete nonsense.” fantasy,” University of Oslo geologist Reidar Müller said in a post on the Science Norway website.

According to geologist William Thomas of the University of Kentucky in the United States, The remains of some dinosaurs may even be part of this organic oil slick, but this is extremely rare.

What is oil for?

The oil industry extracts the material from natural reservoirs in different parts of the world. Most reserve discoveries occur in sedimentary basins where oil emerges from beneath thick layers of sediment. However, it can also be found in underwater areas close to continental coasts, such as in the Campos Basin in Brazil. In any case, it is important to emphasize that humanity has already found mineral deposits in deserts, forests and other areas.

But the material doesn’t just appear in someone’s backyard because It needs to be mined through large ground drilling operations. After drilling, oil will begin to ‘gushing’ from the Earth so it can be refined for different uses.

Oil is not a material we can use directly to fuel cars and industrial machinery, so it must go through a refining process. After being carried out at different stages of improvement through chemical processes such as refining, hydrorefining, cracking and alkylation, Oil is converted into different types of fossil fuels.

Fossil fuels refined from oil:

• Gasoline;
• Diesel;
• Oil;
• Liquid fuel;
• naphtha;
• Petroleum gas;
• Lubricating oils;
• Others.

In addition to being actively used in the production of fossil fuels, it is also used in many industries. They also use the material to produce rubber, plastics, solvents, paints, among other products. In other words, oil has dozens of uses.

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