Doesn't anyone else wonder what is in the space that the oil was pumped out of?

Question

The United States uses 360 million US liquid gallons (1.36 gigalitres) of gasoline each day. Where does it come from?
What is it being replaced with? When will we run out? Why do Americans complain about gas prices that have been higher than they are now in Europe for decades?

Answer 1

Oil is usually trapped in porous rock like sandstone for instance that has little spaces between the sand grains. When and oil deposit is first tapped, usually the oil is under a lot of pressure from the weight of all the rock sitting on top of it and it just squirts out. The space it used to take up is just squeezed out as the rock above it sinks. The surface of the ground also sinks. The same thing happens by the way when ground water is pumped out. Phoenix Arizona has sunk something like 15 feet (I cannot remember the exact figure) because of well water pumping.

As they keep pumping out the oil the rock eventually is squeezed as much as it can and then the pressure on the oil starts to fall so pretty soon it will not flow out by itself any more. At that point it is common to pump water into the rock from some of the wells. That water pumps up the pressure and starts forcing the oil out again.

After a while both water and oil starts to come out of the well. As time goes on less and less oil comes out and more and more water comes out. Eventually there is so little oil coming out that there is no point in trying to pump more and the well is abandoned. Many wells in the United States are pretty old and the average amount of oil produced is just 10% the other 90% is just water. The water to oil ratio is one of the better ways to figure out how much recoverable oil is left in the ground.

One of the things the people are worried about is that many countries keep the oil to water ratio of their wells a secret and so we don't know how much oil is left. We don't know how much Saudi oil is left for this reason. That is kind of a big deal because they are the single largest oil producer in the world and people think they might be starting to run out.

One other thing about oil wells. We can only recover about half of the oil the rest just gets left in the ground because we cannot figure out any way to make it flow out.

So the answer to what happens to that space is that some of it is just gone because the space is squeezed out of the rock, and the surface of the ground sinks a little. The rest of the space is filled with water, or in some cases they are starting to use carbon dioxide gas.

Answer 2

Petroleum (unrefined gasoline) is pumped from deep underground where naturally decomposed organisms from millions of years ago (animal and plant alike) have formed crude oil. Many oil fields exist underwater, where in many cases the drilling causes the open 'wounds' in the earth to fill up with soil and water when the source has been depleted. On land, the land is so loose that normally the earth compresses on itself, filling the expanse with earth from above.

While Petroleum is listed as a limited-supply fuel, it is a regenative fuel as well. As each ecosystem decomposes on itself, it forms more opportunities to form oil packets. While oil might not be as plentiful in the future as it is today, we will probably never "run out".

Oil prices are something to bicker over. In Europe, people have adapted to conserving fuel for decades, they have already been over a smooth and spacious transition to being less dependant on oil. As we transistion to meet the European lifestyle of conserving fuel, it will leave us angry, because it is a very swift transistion. Europe had a long time period to adjust to rising oil prices while the United States has performed the transistion quite dangerously. If we do not conform quickly enough, our economy will shrink quickly and will become unrecoverable if the situation lasts too long.

Answer 3

Usually water is pumped into oil wells due to petroleum's lesser density and the fact that water and oil don't mix. By pumping water into an oil well, the drilling company can make sure they get all the oil out of a well instead of accidentally leaving some on the uneven floor of a subterranean cavern.

When they pump the water in, it immediately sinks to the bottom of the well and floats the oil up to the surface of the well. So instead of having to ram pipe all the way to the bottom of the well, the drillers find the highest point of the cavern that contains the well and begin pumping in water to float the oil up to the pipe, rather than having to chase the petroleum around the cavern as they decrease the volume.

Answer 4

As for what's in that space.... some of it's natural gas which expanded as the pressure dropped, some of it's subsidence (the earth above sinks a bit), about 70% of it's from overseas so it doesn't affect US land at all.

And you're off a bit.  The US uses about 140 billion gallons of gasoline a year, or 384 million gallons a day.

Answer 5

Petroleum. The oil company pumped the decomposition from sea and earth below and create them into oil. U.S. has many places so they can access to it, probably they need more money in price because they may found out first there are no oil left, but they use oil they still have, contribute them needs more money to find more oil to provide for U.S. The last part of these is just guessing work.

Answer 6

1. decomposing plants, carbon deposits, and such.
2. most oil pumps replace it with air, then when the place is out of oil, they remove the pump, and the surrounding rocks keep it standing, you're left with a giant flammable cavern.
3. no one can know
4. the price of living is higher in europe, but europeans make more, just as in america.

Answer 7

most europeans cant even afford a car, why would they bother bitching about gas. besides its a pain in the *** just to get a license in europe. and that is a good question, what does fill that space. oh yeah, fumes, crude oil puts off fumes that would expand and fill the void. that's why crude burns so well. ha ha im a genius.

Answer 8

Sinkholes are created. Also gases expand when the pressure is relieved, until the gases are pumped out. Sinkholes are a hazard. Yep, I wonder too.....