Hydrocarbons And Crudeoil

 HYDROCARBONS

Hydrocarbons are organic compounds composed only of two elements --- cabon and hydrogen – hence their name. the main source of hydrocarbon is crude oil.

There are hundreds of different hydrocarbons. They can be put into two classes – aliphatic and aromatic hydrocarbons.

Aliphatic hydrocarbons are composed of carbon chains. Aliphatic hydrocarbons are divided into two and they are    1) Acyclic and   2) Cyclic compounds.

In acyclic compounds, the carbon chains are straight or branched. Important families that belong to this group are the Alkanes, Alkenes and the Alkynes.

In cyclic aliphatic compounds, the end carbon atoms of an acyclic carbon chain join together to form a ring.

Aromatic hydrocarbons are all cyclic compounds.  The basic cyclic structure is the benzene ring.

CRUDEOIL

The chief source of hydrocarbons is crude oil or petroleum. Petroleum, which means rock oil in latin, occurs as a dark, sticky, viscous liquid. Its is found in huge underground  deposits in many parts of the world. Natural gas is usually found together with it.

ORIGIN OF CRUDEOIL AND NATURAL GAS

Crudeoil and natural gas are found from the remains of marine algae and animals . When these tiny aquatic organisms died, theirs remains gradually settled on the seabeds.

Over the years, the remains became covered by mud, silt and other sediments. As the sediments piled up, their mass exerted a great pressure on the lower layers, changing them to hard sedimentary rocks. During the process, bacterial activity, heat and pressure probably changed the plant and animal remains into crude oil and natural gas.

The oil and gas so formed slowly moved to other areas through the tiny holes or pores in the porous rocks around them. Since oil and gas are not dense, they tend to seep upwards until they meet a non- porous layer of rocks and are trapped under it, thus forming an oil trap.

WORLD CRUDE OIL RESERVES

About three fifths of the world’s oil reserves are in Asia, with most of it concentrated in the Middle East. Other Asian countries rich in oil are China and Indonesia. Russia has the next largest oil reserves. The remaining important oil reserves are found in northern and western Africa, United States, Canada, Venezuela and Australia.

NIGERIAN CRUDE OIL RESERVE

Since it was first discovered at OLoibiri in 1956, crude oil has brought in much money to Nigeria. On land, large deposits of oil have been found in the Niger  Delta –Afam,  Abata, Bomu, Owaza, Egbema and Ughelli – Kokori – Oleh zone. Offshore, oil occurs at calabar and in the Burutu – Forcados – Escravas zone of Delta state. From fields all over Nigeria, oil is pumped through pipelines to the oil terminals at Bonny or Forcados for export or to the refineries at Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna. Oil production has been increasing steadily over the years. Today, Nigeria ranks among the top ten oil producers of the world.

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