What Do You Know About Origin Of Petroleum And Organic Theory About It?

Question

What Do You Know About Origin Of Petroleum And Organic Theory About It?

3 Answers

Answer Question

Answer 1

In some parts of the world, a black, thin sticky liquids seeps out of the ground. This liquid is called crude oil or petroleum. Petroleum itself is a complex mixture of hydrocarbons.

Nothing definite can be said about the origin of petroleum. Chinese used petroleum as a fuel as early as 200BC. The word petroleum is derived from the Latin words "Petra" meaning rock and "Oleum" meaning oil. It is also called mineral oil.

Oil and gas are fossil fuels. They were formed millions of years ago when large area of earth was covered by sea water. Tiny sea creatures called plankton died and sank to the sea bed. They mixed up with mud. The bacteria in mud began to bring about the decay of these tiny creatures. Process of decay took place slowly due to little oxygen dissolved in the depth of sea. The presence on the decaying material increased due to gradual deposition of mud and silt. Bacteria decay at high pressure with little oxygen changed the organic matter into crude oil. Petroleum and natural gas are found together, held in between the layers of non-porous rocks in the ground. These fuels are extracted by drilling a pipe through the rock.

Answer 2

Anonymous answered

Decomposition micro organism

Answer 3

There are
various theories. The most accepted theory is the organic
theory:
Hydrocarbons came from remains of the bodies of prehistoric
land based animals, marine organisms
(plankton) and vegetation, which were washed away
and buried below the earth during upheavals on the
earth's surface millions of years ago.
In the course of time the buried organic matters
decomposed and the carbon and hydrogen present in
these reacted under heat and pressure to form various
compounds, generally hydrocarbons.
The hydrocarbons got trapped in the porous rocks and
were covered by hard sedimentary rocks that formed
over it. They acted as “cap” or seal to prevent
hydrocarbons from escaping.
As explained later, carbon and hydrogen atoms can join
together to form molecules of various sizes and structures.
Hydrocarbons could be a small molecule with combination
of one or a few carbon atoms with hydrogen (e.g. Methane
CH , Ethane - C H ). Or it could be very large molecule by 4 2 6
combination of dozens of carbon and hydrogen atoms (e.g.
Wax - C H ) or even thousands of carbon and hydrogen 20 42
atoms (e.g. Polythene).
Petroleum is essentially composed of hydrocarbons with
some other impurities. The words ‘petroleum’, ‘oil and
gas’ and ‘hydrocarbon’ are all used synonymously in the
oil and gas industry.