HOW+we+get+oil

Brittney Journal # 3 November 1, 2007

The HOW factor

Oil and natural gas are extracted from underground reservoirs using drilling rigs. When it reaches the reservoir, the oil is pumped up. The oil then travels through pipelines to a refinery, where is it separated into its components, purified and readied for use.

About 20 percents pf the oil we use today comes from beneath the sea. That oil is being obtained using offshore rigs, which are either floating or secured to the sea floor by long legs. The oil they pump is transported on large tanker ships.

The oil that comes from a reservoir is a very thick substance called crude oil or petroleum. The crude oil is broken down into a number of usable forms through the process of distillation. ( the purification of a substance by changing it to a gas, and then back into a liquid) This takes place in a tall, skinny device called a fractioning column. Crude oils flows into the bottom of the fractioning column, where it is heated to a 399 degrees Celsius and turns into a vapor. As the Vapor rises ,it cool. Different substance return to the liquid phase, and separate out from the mixture, at different temperatures. Gasoline is last at 110 degrees Celsius.