Environmental Problems, Their Causes, and Sustainability 1

FurnaceHeatedcrude oilGasesGasolineAviation fuelHeating oilDiesel oilNaphthaGreaseand waxAsphaltHSRFOODSThe 11 countries that make up the Organization ofPetroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) have 78% ofthe world’s estimated crude oil reserves. This explainswhy OPEC is expected to have long-term control overthe supplies and prices of the world’s conventional oil.Today OPEC’s members are Algeria, Indonesia, Iran,Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia,United Arab Emirates, and Venezuela.Saudi Arabia, with 25%, has by far the largest proportionof the world’s proven crude oil reserves, followedby Canada (15%)—because its huge supply ofoil sand was recently classified as a conventionalsource of oil. Other countries with large proven reservesare Iraq (11%), the United Arab Emirates (9.3%),Kuwait (9.2%), and Iran (8.6%).Most analysts say it is only a matter of time beforethe Middle Eastern share of global oil production increasesfrom its current 30% to at least 50%. This is whythe world’s other nations have such vital economicand military security interests in helping preserve politicalstability in the often-volatile Middle East.Here is the problem in a nutshell. Oil is the mostwidely used energy resource in the world and in theUnited States. Some call the people in developed countriesoilaholics, and the world’s largest suppliers tothem are Canada, Saudi Arabia, and several otherPersian Gulf Middle Eastern countries. To some theworld economy is built largely on how long SaudiaArabia’s House of Saud rulers can continue. There isalso concern that terrorist assaults on a few key partsof the country’s oil system could put the Saudis out ofthe oil business for up to 2 years and create global economicchaos.Figure 17-8 Refining crude oil. Based on their boiling points,components are removed at various levels in a giant distillationcolumn. The most volatile components with the lowest boilingpoints are removed at the top of the column.Some products of oil distillation, called petrochemicals,are used as raw materials in manufacturingpesticides, plastics, synthetic fibers, paints, medicines,and many other products. Look at your clothes andother items around you and try to figure out howmany of these things were made from chemicals producedby distilling oil.Who Has the World’s Oil Supplies?OPEC RulesEleven OPEC countries—most of them in the MiddleEast—have 78% of the world’s proven oil reservesand most of the world’s unproven reserves.The oil industry is the world’s largest business. Thuscontrol of current and future oil reserves is the singlegreatest source of global economic and political power.Case Study: How Much Oil Does the UnitedStates Have? Rapidly Dwindling SuppliesThe United States—the world’s largest oil user—hasonly 2.9% of the world’s proven oil reserves and onlya small percentage of its unproven reserves.Figure 17-9 shows the locations of the major knowndeposits of fossil fuels in the United States and Canadaand ocean areas where more crude oil and natural gasmight be found. About one-fourth of U.S. domestic oilproduction comes from offshore drilling (mostly offthe coasts of Texas and Louisiana, Figure 17-10) and17% from Alaska’s North Slope.The United States has only 2.9% of the world’s oilreserves. But it uses about 26% of the crude oil extractedworldwide each year (over two-thirds of thatfor transportation), mostly because oil is an abundant,convenient, and cheap fuel (Figure 17-11, p. 358). Despitean upsurge in exploration and test drilling, U.S.oil extraction has declined since 1985, and most geologistsdo not expect a significant increase in domesticsupplies (Figure 17-12, p. 358). And the United Statesproduces most of its dwindling supply of oil at a high356 CHAPTER 17 Nonrenewable Energy Resources