Where does Oil (the kind that we use for gas in our cars) come from, how does it form etc?

Question

I'm just curious, seems like some very intelligent person could make some!
I was not certain what cateorgory to put this in.

Answer 1

There is some controversy on this, but most petroleum geologists prefer theories of oil formation which hold that oil originated in shallow seas as vast quantities of marine plankton or plant materials which died and sank into the mud at the bottom under anaerobic conditions that prevented biodegradation. Under these conditions, anaerobic bacteria converted the lipids (fats, oils and waxes) into a waxy substance called kerogen.

As the source rock was buried deeper, overburden pressure raised temperatures into the oil window, between 60° and 120° C, in which thermal depolymerization broke up the kerogen molecules into the straight-chain hydrocarbons that make up most of petroleum. These conditions are called a generation kitchen. Once crude oil formed, it became very fluid, and migrated upward through the rock strata. This action is called oil expulsion. Eventually it was either trapped in an oil reservoir or oil escaped to the surface and was biodegraded by soil bacteria.

After that point, the petro cracking that Lyons_UT speaks of takes over. I would add to his answer that Canada and Mexico provide a major portion of the oil imported into the USA and if memory serves have been top sources of our petroleum imports, amounting to more foreign oil than most if not any of the individual Middle Eastern countries.

Gasoline can be manufactured synthetically, but the high amounts of energy it takes to convert other forms of hydrocarbons and cost of modifying refineries to do this are claimed to be prohibitive. Again of course, this is a political issue and an area of some controversy. Basically you would have to recreate the heat and pressure I described above.

Answer 2

The oil that is turned into gas that is used for you car first comes from underground. The Middle East, South America,and a few parts of the US make up a large portion of where the oil comes from. After coming up from the ground the oil must go through various stages to becomes gasoline. Those stages happen at oil refineries. You may have seen oil refineries like Chevron, Exxon Mobile, Sunoco, BP in parts of Texas, California, the gulf states, Ohio, Pennsylvania among other states. The refineries use different stages to turn the oil into gasoline which mostly consist of heating up the crude oil, letting it cool and adding a certain percentage of ethanol and detergents depending on what regulations require. After that the gasoline is then sent through pipelines and trucks to various areas and are sent into a gas station where you eventually put the gas in your vehicle.

Answer 3

I took an entire semester on that very subject. The condensed answer is heat and pressure convert oils from microscopic sea creatures that use vegetable oil to maintain their position in the water column into petroleum. It is a lot more complicated than that, but I am not going to go into all the details.

Answer 4

properly first, why ought to the oil companies finance the analyze and progression of determination fuels. isn't that like asking McDonald's to advise a sturdy pizza place? shouldn't people who're so "fired up" approximately utilising determination energies be those arising them? 2nd, the autos being produced which run on determination fuels are nonetheless way out of the affordability selection of maximum people. that is why that is this type of status image for the Hollywood-varieties. It takes a protracted time for "state-of-the-artwork" stuff to filter out right down to the fee selection of the trouble-free citizen. mutually as we are waiting for this to ensue, we ought to rid ourselves on Independence to distant places oil, and their fees. gas fees are set on hypothesis. So, fees will start to fall while the drill bits touch the floor. possibly no longer plenty, even though it is going to a minimum of be contained in the superb suited course. I have not have been given any concern with determination fuels, even though it is not gonna be obtainable in one day.

Answer 5

Natural gas is gaseous fossil fuel consisting primarily of methane but including significant quantities of ethane, butane, propane, carbon dioxide, nitrogen, helium and hydrogen sulfide.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_gas