Exploring of oil and gas Read the texts and answer the questions

USES OF PETROLEUM THROUGH THE AGE

non-renewable - невозобновляемый

plumbing - водопровод

brick bonding – перевязка кирпичной кладки

Moses' basket – плетеная детская кроватка

Noah's Ark – ноев ковчег

whaling – китобойный промысел

bitumen - горная смола, деготь

pitch - смолить

combustion engine – двигатель внутреннего сгорания

feedstock – исходное сырье

Although we can trace the beginnings of oil itself to several million years ago, the oil industry is a comparatively recent development ...

Petroleum literally means 'rock oil'. It is the second most abundant liquid on Earth. Oil and gas also provide two-thirds of the world's primary energy supplies. Oil and gas are also non-renewable resources and our use of them has increased so much that we have worries about how long they will last. However, improved technology in the oil and gas industry now means that each year we are finding more oil in the world than we are using.

First coal and now petroleum (which includes oil and gas) have played an essential role in changing our society from an agricultural to an industrial one. It is almost impossible to find any synthetic item where petroleum has not had any part in the process of its manufacture.

Рис.44

Tyres, lubricants, plastics, paint, waxes, tars, cosmetics and synthetic textiles, as well as fuels for transport and power stations - modern life would be very different without oil

Early uses of oil

There is evidence that humans have used petroleum products throughout history. Oil that had seeped to the surface would mostly evaporate and leave behind bitumen - the tarry component of the mixture of hydrocarbons from which it is composed. This has been used for thousands of years as a waterproofing agent, for plumbing, boat building and brick bonding. There is reference to bitumen being used as a coating for Moses' basket and Noah's Ark being 'pitched' inside and out with it.

The American Indians collected oil for medicines. The American settlers found its presence in the water supplies a contamination, but they learned to collect it to use as fuel in their lamps.

The growth of the petroleum industry

Petroleum oil became a valuable commodity in the nineteenth century. The whaling industry was failing to provide enough whale oil to light the lamps of the world and a new source was needed. The first oil well was drilled in August 1859 by Edwin Drake in Pennsylvania, starting a new era in our history.

The uses to which oil could be put extended as the supply grew. The invention of the internal combustion engine meant that the petrol fraction of the oil mixture was vital for transport. Then the blossoming of flight demanded fuel that could best be supplied from oil.

In the 1940s the development of synthetic materials (such as nylon and polythene) made from oil brought the arrival of the plastics industry - based on oil and gas as feedstocks.

It is no wonder that oil was called black gold and the discovery of oil and gas could mean riches beyond belief.

Oil is a fossil fuel. When we burn it, we are releasing  energy first captured from the sun millions of years ago, by plankton (tiny prehistoric plant life), during the process of photosynthesis.

1. What does the word «petroleum» mean?

2. What percentage of the world's primary energy supplies do oil and gas provide?

3. Tell about early uses of oil.

4. What did the American Indians collect oil for?

5. When was the first oil well drilled?

6. What was the influence of the combustion engine ?

7. Why was oil called black gold?