The Advantages and Disadvantages of Oil Are a factor to be taken into account in this element so controversial to create a disagreement between those who believe it is the most useful and productive for development and those who believe that its advantages do not excuse it from the harm it entails to the environment.
Petroleum is a liquid compound of viscous consistency and black color, which was vital for the development of the economies of the present world due to its multiple applications in fuels, raw materials, pharmaceutical, agricultural and industrial activity, as well as in the Transport (Murphy and Hall, 2011).
Since the middle of the last century, the use of oil has led to remarkable progress, endless benefits for man, as well as a radical change in lifestyle; This progress also produced many environmental, social and economic consequences. At present there is no alternative energy or other refuse that compares to black gold. (Fernández and González, 2015).
Advantages of Oil
1- Profitable business
Oil production in the twentieth century was the most profitable business in the world, so much that the economy of many countries was developed thanks to this resource. Black gold is a relatively cheap resource to extract, and has an ever-increasing demand as the world's economy grows.
The United States, for example, owes its development to oil as it was the first country to develop the oil industry in the early twentieth century. Between 1950 and 1973 it multiplied by nine, which was a tremendous industrial development around the world. During this period, important American companies such as Chevron, Exxon, Gulf, Mobil and Texaco were consolidated (Parra, 2004).
The oil business was so profitable that in 1960, operating expenses on Kuwait's reserves were less than 5 cents a barrel, and this was sold at $ 1.50 / b, which represented more than 300 times its operating cost Parra, 2004).
Although extraction costs have increased significantly in the last 40 years. Global economic growth continues to use increasing amounts of fossil energy, of which oil is the most important (Murphy and Hall, 2011).
2- Storage and transport
It is a compound that can be stored easily, as it is in a liquid state and is non-corrosive, it is also possible to move it from one place to another simply. Unlike other resources like natural gas, oil does not need major infrastructure projects for its transportation.
3- High energy density
Energy density is the available energy that we can take advantage of a resource. Oil is characterized by a very high energy density of 42,000 KJ / kg, which is 97 times higher than the lithium and phosphate batteries currently used.
4- Permanent Availability
Solar energy depends on sunny days, wind energy depends on the strength of the wind. But once an oilfield is discovered, black gold will always be available regardless of the time of day or the rhythms of nature; In addition, the extraction of oil does not depend on other energy resources, only from a field available to exploit.
Only in 2016 were produced 95 million barrels of oil per day worldwide to meet the demand and lifestyle of the population.
Further explorations and discoveries are still under way and similar productions are estimated for the following years (OPEC, 2016).
5- Versatility
The ways in which it can be used are very varied. Fuels generated from petroleum are: gasoline, diesel, gas oils, aviation fuels, heating fuels, furnace fuel, industrial boilers and thermal power plants; In addition solvents and lubricants are made.
Some applications of polymers derived from petroleum are as follows:
- PVC is used in pipes.
- Polystyrene is used in packaging and wrapping of foodstuffs.
- Polyethylene is used in household utensils, dishes, glasses, toys, bags.
- The plexiglass is used in windows, luminous signs, clocks, car headlights.
- Teflon is used in cooking utensils.
- Cellophane is used in packaging and packaging.
- Nylon, in fabrics and toothbrushes.
- Polyurethane, in mattresses and seats.
- The bakelite, in handles of cooking utensils and telephone devices.
- Melamine, in electrical accessories, thermal and acoustic insulation.
- Synthetic rubber, in tires and bumpers.
- And the neoprene, in immersion suits.
Its uses also extend to the pharmaceutical sector, because from petroleum compounds such as ethylene glycol, benzoic acid, benzyl alcohol, salicylic acid, acetanilide among others, can synthesize a large number of medicines.
6- It is the basis of contemporary agriculture
Oil is essential both in the agricultural production process and in the collection and transport poses.
The use of oil in agriculture gave rise to the Green Revolution between the 40s and 70s. During this period there was a radical change in world agriculture, since large-scale agricultural machinery was introduced, there was an improvement in the systems Irrigation and large quantities of fertilizers and pesticides derived from petroleum were used. All this allowed to produce enough food to satisfy a population that is growing.
Disadvantages of oil
7- Dependency
There are so many benefits of black gold to society that it has become dependent on it. Suffice it to say that practically everything that surrounds us is made of oil or has been required of it for its elaboration, a situation that makes it necessary in almost all our daily activities.
In addition, the global economy is based on steady growth mainly sponsored by oil.
The world consumes 30 billion barrels a year to generate 40% of the world's energy and 97% of the energy destined for transportation comes from oil.
If we were to eliminate only the transport (gasoline and asphalt) we would find ourselves in serious difficulties, since many of the things that are basic to daily life such as food or clothing require great distances from their production to reach us .
According to Murphy and Hall (2011), there is no substitute for conventional oil that is of the same quantity, quality and availability for the same price. If we want to opt for alternative energy sources, we realize that we are still dependent on oil. We need it, for example, in the manufacture of solar panels and in the production, transport and installation of wind turbines.
8- It runs out
Since in a non-renewable resource, once it is extracted it is no longer regenerated. The peak of world oil production will occur in the decades between 2000 and 2020 (figure 1). This means according to Hubbert, (1956) that they will have been exhausted half the world reserves.
Figure 1. Projection of the zenith of world oil production. (Fernández and González, 2015).
As time goes by, fewer and fewer countries produce oil, currently Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Nigeria, Iraq, Kuwait, Canada, Iran, Norway, Mexico and Angola. In addition, the main deposits are in a decline of production (Fernández and González, 2015).
The pace of discoveries of new deposits peaked in the 1960s. The more accessible and better quality oil has run out, so new sources of lower quality (unconventional oils) are now being tapped. Which can raise costs and paradoxically stop economic growth. (Murphy and Hall, 2011).
The rate of energy return (ERR), the ratio of energy to energy invested in the oil extraction process, has declined from a value of at least 100 to 1 for oil discoveries in the 1930s (Hall, et al. 2003), up to 36 to 1 in the 1990s, and subsequently 18 to 1 in 2006. (Gagnon et al, 2009).
According to Heinberg (2009), TRE has been declining for decades because fossil fuels are getting worse and harder to extract. In addition, the discovered deposits are smaller, which forces more perforations.
9- Marine Pollution
Disaster of the"Prestige"in Galicia (2002)
Since oil extraction occurs mainly at sea, many oil accidents have occurred over the years causing strong impacts on ecosystems.
After a petroleum spill in tropical areas, a significant decrease in the living coral cover of a reef at a depth of 0 to 3 meters has been found, as well as decreases in the coral cover at depths of up to 12 m (Jackson et al. Lee and Page, 1997).
10- Land Pollution
Petroleum-based agrochemicals include inorganic fertilizers and pesticides. Excessive use of these chemicals has serious effects on the environment that may be immediate or long term (Bhandari, 2014).
Only 0.1% of applied insecticides reach the pests, while the rest are dispersed in the environment, contaminating soils, water and affecting living beings. (Torres and Capote, 2004).
At present, it is considered that of the 6 million agrochemicals that are potentially toxic to humans, approximately 100 thousand have carcinogenic effects and only 10% of these are known to have a medium-term effect on health. (Riccioppo, 2011)
Land contamination also occurs in oil extraction processes. Canada is one of the countries with the most reserves in the world, but the problem is that these reserves are not conventional because the oil is dissolved in tar sands.
The Canadian extraction and refining process requires the implementation of open pit mining and large amounts of water to separate the oil from the sand, which involves the removal of vegetation, the use of large amounts of water and very high contamination Of the hydrological basins.
11- Air Pollution
In addition to ground pollution, the process for extracting bituminous oil also leads to a significant release of greenhouse gases that pollute the atmosphere. The large amounts of energy needed to process bituminous shale, combined with process thermochemistry, produce carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions.
This process generates between 1.2 and 1.75 more greenhouse gases than conventional oil operations (Cleveland, and O'Connor, 2011).
In general, combustion of petroleum products generates particles of carbon dioxide (CO2), sulfur oxides (SOx), nitrous oxides (NOx), carbon monoxide (CO), which contribute to accelerate global warming and generate acid rain.
Measurements of rain and snow acidity reveal that precipitation in parts of the eastern United States and Western Europe has shifted from an almost neutral solution 200 years ago to a dilute solution of sulfuric and nitric acids today.
Acidity is expected to continue to increase due to efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. (Likens et al., 1979).
12- Exhaustion of resources
The green revolution gave rise to agriculture and industrial livestock, activities that have contributed to the scarcity of natural resources such as water, soil, forests and the decline of species of flora and fauna in the world.
Overexploitation of water has mainly affected arid areas, where it is extracted intensively from underground aquifers for agricultural use. Most overexploited aquifers have a slow recharge rate because rainfall is low, which causes abandonment of land when water runs out.
In addition, much of our original forests and forests have been lost because agricultural expansion always requires new sites for production and uses methods such as logging. Once the soil no longer produces, it becomes necessary to look for more fertile soils in other places.
From its beginnings, the industrial agriculture generated an overexploitation of the soil followed by processes of erosion, loss of fertility, salinization and desertification. While food production has increased significantly over the last 50 years, a quarter of the world's land is now in a state of degradation (FAO, 2011).
References
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