- Crude oil is a dark, thick hydrocarbon liquid found deep underground in land or sea formed from the dead remains of microorganisms called plankton that lived millions of years ago.
- Oil (petroleum) was formed more than 300 million years ago.
- About 20 gallons of regular gasoline can be produced from one barrel of oil.
- The fuel necessary for motor vehicles and aviation and many other common products like plastic, paints, detergents, fertilizers, lubricants in daily use are derived from oil.
- Oil has been used for more than 5000 years (ancient Babylonians and Sumerians had used crude oil).
- Oil is made into many different products like for instance clothes, fertilizers, plastic bottles, pens and lot of other products.
- Crude oil is "sweet" if it contains less sulphur and "sour" if it contains more sulphur.
- Oil consumption is biggest in USA where daily consumption passes 19,5 million barrels.
- Light Crude oil flows freely like water and heavy crude oil is thick and sticky like tar.
- Oil biggest producer is Saudi Arabia followed by Russia.
- Oil is measured in barrels "bbl". One standard barrel is 159 liters or 42 Us gallons.
- Oil together with coal and natural gas supply about 88 % of the world's energy needs.
- 85 percent of non-OPEC countries and territories import more oil than they export.
- Oil's most known product gasoline costs in Saudi Arabia about 45 cents a gallon and in Venezuela just a quarter of the dollar.
- As of December 2006, the United States has the 11th largest national oil reserves in the world. Saudi Arabia has the largest reserves at over 264 billion barrels compared with the U.S.'s 21 billion barrels.
- U.S. petroleum consumption averages between 20.5 and 21 million barrels per day.
- The term "petroleum" was first used in the treatise De Natura Fossilium, published in 1546 by the German mineralogist Georg Bauer, also known as Georgius Agricola.
17 interesting facts about oil (petroleum)
