13 The Oil Industry

Petroleum is the name of a mineral oil. Oil comes from under the ground. Crude oil comes from the wells or boreholes. Boreholes are often very deep. The steel framework over the well is the derrick. From the derrick the machinery drills holes through rock, earth or sand. Oil usually flows freely but men control its natural flow. The natural flow of oil is the result of the pressure of the natural gas in oil or the result of the pressure between the petroleum and the roof of the rock above it.

Crude oil contains various materials, liquids. By the process of refining we obtain petrol, paraffin, and other products from crude oil. We obtain various fuels from it too. Fuels drive ships, planes, buses and so on. Diesel engines burn oil fuel. Many tractors burn diesel oil. Jet engines burn kerosene (paraffin oil).

Nowadays oil industry is an advanced, highly mechanized and reliable sector of the economy. It has highly productive rigs that can drill down to oil and gas deposits lying at depths of more than six kilometers. Today more than 2,000 products are made from oil: fuel for aircraft and for internal combustion engines, fuel for boilers and furnaces, lubricants, bitumen for the manufacture of asphalt, lacquers, solvents, and so on. Oil byproducts are used in making plastics and synthetic substances.

Work is in progress to set up a major oil industry center in Western Siberia, to raise oil extraction, to contract gas pipelines to deliver gas to the Urals and the European part of the Russia and also pipelines to oil refineries in Siberia, and the European part of the country.

Regular oil prospecting throughout the country began in the thirties. Geologists discovered deposits in the Ural-Volga area. In 1932 discoveries followed one after another in this large area. A new oil center "The Second Baku" arose between the Volga and the Urals in 1939.

The rapid development of the Ural-Volga resources made it possible to supply the Russian Army with fuel and lubricants in the difficult years of the Great Patriotic War.

The Ural-Volga field comprises more than 350 deposits and accounts for over half of the Russia oil production. The expansion of the Ural-Volga extraction industry was particularly rapid in the post-war years.

In the sixties, geologists discovered rich deposits of oil on the vast area of the West Siberia, in the Tyumen and Tomsk regions.

Despite the rigorous climate, the oilmen and builders harnesses the West Siberia deposits to the national economy in a short space of time.

Dozens of big research institutes and design organizations appeared to solve important scientific problems, to plan and analyse the exploitation of the deposits, and to improve drilling and pumping techniques. The oil districts have their own research institutes and design offices.

Topical Vocabulary

petroleum – нефть, нефтяной

crude oil – неочищенная нефть

well - скважина

borehole – буровая скважина

framework – корпус, каркас

derrick – буровая вышка

contain – содержать

refine – очищать, рафинировать

obtain – получать, добывать

petrol – бензин, моторное топливо

fuel – горючее, топливо

reliable sector – надежный сектор

rig – буровая вышка

internal combustion engine – двигатель внутреннего сгорания

boiler – паровой котел

furnace - печь

lubricant – смазочный материал

lacquer – лак

solvent - растворитель

oil extraction – нефтедобыча

contract pipeline – протянуть трубопровод

oil prospecting – разведка нефти

oil deposits – залежи нефти

the rigorous climate – суровый климат

harness - использовать

Answer the questions:

1 Where does crude oil come from?

2 What substances does crude oil contain?

3 What substances are obtained from crude oil by the process of refining?

4 How can you characterize the oil industry nowadays?

5 Where was a new oil center "The Second Baku" discovered?

6 Where else were rich deposits of oil discovered?