Oil Drill Rig and Reservoir

The rotary drilling rig uses a series of rotating pipes, called the drill string, to tap into oil
reservoirs. The drill string is supported by a derrick, and turned by the rotary table on its
floor. Circulating, mudlike fluid driven by a pump removes cuttings as the teeth of the drill
bit dig into the rock around the reservoir. Reservoirs occur in many places. They form as a
result of intense pressure on top of layers of dead marine and land organisms mixed with
sand or silt. This reservoir abuts a salt dome, which has trapped a layer of oil and natural
gas between itself and nonporous rock. Because they have no place to expand, the gas and
crude oil are under high pressure and will tend to rush explosively out the channel opened
by the drill rig.

Oil Refinery

An oil refinery in Richmond, California, operates full-time to convert crude oil into useful petroleum
products by separating out fractions of the oil to be used for different purposes. Some fractions
require further conversion or chemical treatment to attain desired end products such as gasoline or
greases.

Oil Refining and Fractional Distillation

Crude oil is refined into products such as gasoline, asphalt, and waxes by a
process called fractional distillation. During the process, the parts, or
fractions, of crude oil are divided out successively by their increasing
molecular weight. For instance, gasoline has a low molecular weight and
vaporizes at a fairly low temperature. This means that at the appropriate
temperature, while all of the rest of the oil is still in liquid form, gasoline

may be separated out. The remaining oil goes through the same process at
a slightly higher temperature, and jet fuel is divided out. Repeating the
distillation process several times will separate out several constituents of
crude oil, which are then processed and put to a wide range of uses.

World Oil Reserves

More than half of the worlds oil reserves57 percentare found in the Middle East. The next
largest area is North America with 18 percent of the worlds oil reserves. Within the Middle East,
Saudi Arabia has the largest reserves with an estimated 262 billion barrels or 38 percent of the
Middle Easts total. Iraq follows with 16 percent.
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Petroleum Production and Consumption

Of the world's top ten oil-producing and oil-consuming countries, the

United States is the worlds third largest petroleum producer and the
worlds largest petroleum consumer. Petroleum is refined into gasoline,
which powers most of the worlds transportation systems. Lubricants
derived from petroleum are also used in virtually all mechanical devices.