Environmental Impact of Petroleum and Natural Gas

Environmental Impact of Petroleum and Natural Gas

Oil as it is known today is actually called petroleum or crude oil and may exist as a combination of liquid, gas, and sticky, tar-like substances. Oil and natural gas are cleaner fuels than coal, but they still have several environmental disadvantages.

The secret to fossil fuels’ ability to produce energy is because they contain a large amount of carbon. The carbon as we know is left over from living matter, primarily plants that lived millions of years ago. Oil and natural gas are usually the result of lots of biological matter that settles to the seafloor, where the hydrocarbons (molecules of hydrogen and carbon), including methane gas, become trapped in rocks. This is what science has proved.

Petroleum sources are usually small pockets of liquid or gas trapped within rock layers deep underground. Extracted crude oil is refined and used to manufacture gasoline for transportation and petrochemicals used in the production of plastics, pharmaceuticals, and cleaning products.

While some petroleum is found in gas form, the most common natural gas is methane. Methane usually occurs in small amounts with petroleum deposits and is often extracted at the same time as the petroleum. Natural gas can be found in certain rock layers, trapped in the tiny spaces in sedimentary rocks as explained above.

Environmental Impact of Drilling for Oil

Oil companies pump liquid oil out of the ground by using drilling rigs and wells that access the pockets of oil resources. The oil fills the rock layers the way water fills a sponge, spreading throughout open spaces, instead of existing as a giant pool of liquid.

Oil is a cleaner fuel than coal, but it still has many disadvantages, such as the following:

·         Transforming crude oil into petrochemicals releases toxins into the atmosphere that are dangerous for human and ecosystem health.

·         Although oil doesn’t produce the same amount of CO₂ that coal burning does, it still contributes greenhouse gases to the atmosphere and increases global warming.

·          Large oil spills sometimes occur during drilling, transport, and use, which of course affect the surrounding environment, these spills aren’t the only risk.

Although large oil spills occur with catastrophic environmental effects, most of the oil spilled into ecosystems is actually from oil that leaks from cars, airplanes, and boats, as well as illegal dumping.

Environmental Impact of Fracking for Natural Gas

Natural gas is a relatively clean-burning fuel source, it produces approximately half the CO₂ emissions that coal burning produces, thus demand for natural gas has increased in the last few decades as concerns grow about carbon emissions and global warming.

Now fuel producers are exploring natural gas in reservoirs separate from petroleum as sources of this fuel. To release the gas from the rocks and capture it for use as fuel, companies use a method of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.

Fracking for natural gas requires injecting a liquid mix of chemicals, sand, and water into the gas-bearing rock at super high pressures, high enough to crack open the rock, releasing trapped gases. The gas is then pumped out of the rock along with the contaminated water.

The sand and chemicals are left behind in the rock fractures, leading to groundwater pollution and potentially less stable bedrock. Now there are concerned that earthquakes in regions that have never experienced earthquakes before are the result of wastewater from natural gas fracking operations.

There are several environmental issues associated with the process enumerated above and if concrete efforts are not taken, the future generation could impact negatively…..play your part