Oil pipelines, their spills, and the affects on humans and our ecosystem have been in the news a lot in the past years. This has been especially true in Mayflower, Ark., where the Exxon Mobil Pegasus Pipeline ruptured in a subdivision in March 2013. Below is a bit of trivia about crude oil, production of oil, and the hazards it can bring to the planet. See how well you score.
1. Crude oil is a mixture of various different compounds called hydrocarbons. These different hydrocarbons are separated in a column by which process? Fractional distillation; chromographic distillation; factorial distillation; none of these.
2. Which of the following substances can be isolated by the method of separating the mixture of hydrocarbons found in crude oil? Kerosene; sodium thiosulfate; oil of vitriol; phenol.
3. What is the name commonly given to the liquid used in drilling a well? Mud; Hole Milk; Syrup; Black Gold.
4. What is the name given to an offshore drilling rig? Semi-submersible; jack-up; drill ship; all of the above.
5. How many gallons of crude oil is saved by recycling one ton of plastic? 200; 434; 685; 1,070.
6. What is the world record for the largest oil spill, and how long did it take to clean up?
7. True or False: Very light oils, such as gasoline and jet fuel, are extremely toxic to marine organisms, but evaporate rapidly in water, so cleaning spills of this type is unnecessary.
8. The Pegasus pipeline running more than 850 miles between Patoka, Ill. and Nederland, Texas is 20 inches in diameter and was built in the 1940s to carry crude from Texas to Illinois. The pipeline was built to carry 65,000 barrels a day, but a few years ago, Exxon was allowed to expand that to ______ barrels daily. 70,000; 85,000; 95,000; 100,000.
ANSWERS
1. Fractional distillation. Fractional distillation takes place in the fractionating column. The crude oil enters the chamber and, due to differing boiling points, the hydrocarbons are separated into different groups such as naphtha and bitumen. 2. Kerosene. Kerosene has a boiling point between the temperatures of 150 and 250 degrees on the Celsius scale. 3. Mud. Many additives are mixed with water, diesel or synthetic oil to make up mud. The properties of the mud are very important to the safe and productive drilling of a well. 4. All of them. Semi-submersibles are floating vessels that are partially sunk to add stability. Jack-ups are vessels with long legs that can touch the ocean floor. The body of the vessel is then jacked-up about the waterline roughly 50-70 feet. A drill ship uses sophisticated technology called dynamic positioning to keep itself in place while drilling is underway. 5. 685 gallons. 6. Gulf War Oil Spill (January 21, 1991 in the Persian Gulf) released 1,360,000–1,500,000 tons of oil (9,968,800-10,995,000 barrels). According to one report, “about half the oil evaporated, a million barrels were recovered and 2 to 3 million barrels washed ashore, mainly in Saudi Arabia.” Little appears to have been done about clearing up the oil that washed ashore, and the long-term impact on the local environment has been severe. 7. True. 8. 95,000 barrels a day.