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Ebonyi State University, Abakaliki

Faculty of Science
Department of Industrial Chemistry

ICH 325- Petroleum chemistry Lecture Note (Credit Unit = 02)

Course Details: ICH 325: Petroleum Chemistry (2 Credits)

 Petroleum in the contemporary energy scene (Dr. Obini, U. E.)

 Nature, classification and composition of crude petroleum and natural gases

(Prof. Oti W.)

 Distribution of petroleum and natural gas resources: the global and Nigeria
situations (Prof. Oti W.)

 Petroleum and technology (Dr. Obini, U. E.)

 Survey of refinery products and processes (Prof. Oti W.)

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Executive Summary

Petroleum has brought innumerable benefits to human civilization; quality of life and

dynamic prosperity is fuelled by this precious, miraculous resource. Petroleum is the lifeline

of modern civilization. It is the source of energy for agricultural, health, industrial and

transport and manufacturing sectors just to mention a few and keeps the wheel of other

essential industries moving. In fact, there is no conceivable area where energy does not play

its vital role. Petroleum currently provides 90 per cent of energy used for transportation, and

while its benefits are astounding, the use of petroleum-based technologies also has cost

implications. The environmental impacts associated with extracting and transporting

petroleum remain a major issue, as the extraction of petroleum can affect fragile ecosystems.

However, oil companies continue to develop new techniques and enhanced recovery

methods, which reduce the footprint of drilling equipment and the amount of land affected.

Perhaps the most serious concern is that the combustion of fossil fuels contributes varieties of

emissions to the atmosphere and releases carbon dioxide, a potential greenhouse gas (GHG).

These emissions have modified atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations, which play an

important role in moderating global temperatures. Therefore, there is considerable interest in

reducing our reliance on petroleum-based technologies.

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Topic 1: Petroleum in the Contemporary Energy outlook (scenario)

Breakdown:
Preamble
i. Concept of petroleum and petroleum industry
ii. The role of petroleum in the Energy sector
iii. Energy from Petroleum

Preamble: Concept of petroleum

Petroleum, in one form or another, has been used since ancient times, and is now important
across society, including in economy, politics and technology. The rise in importance was
due to the invention of the internal combustion engine, the rise in commercial aviation,
and the importance of petroleum to industrial organic chemistry, particularly the synthesis
of plastics, fertilizers, solvents, adhesives and pesticides.

Today, about 90 percent of vehicular fuel needs are met by oil. Petroleum also makes up 40
percent of total energy consumption in the United States, but is responsible for only 1 percent
of electricity generation. Petroleum's worth as a portable, dense energy source powering the
vast majority of vehicles and as the base of many industrial chemicals makes it one of the
world's most important commodities.

The top three oil producing countries are Russia, Saudi Arabia and the United States.
About 80 percent of the world's readily accessible reserves are located in the Middle East,
with 62.5 percent coming from the Arab 5: Saudi Arabia, UAE, Iraq, Qatar and Kuwait.

Petroleum, (from Latin word “petra” or petrous meaning rock + oleum meaning oil) is a
naturally occurring, yellow-to-black liquid found in geologic formations beneath the Earth's
surface, which is commonly refined into various types of fuels. It consists of hydrocarbons of
various molecular weights and other organic compounds. The name petroleum covers both
naturally occurring unprocessed crude oil and petroleum products that are made up of refined
crude oil. A fossil fuel, petroleum is formed when large quantities of dead organisms,
usually zooplankton and algae, are buried underneath sedimentary rock and subjected to
intense heat and pressure.

Petroleum is recovered mostly through oil drilling (natural petroleum springs are rare). It is
refined and separated, most easily by distillation, into a large number of consumer products,
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from gasoline (petrol) and kerosene to asphalt and chemical reagents used to make plastics
and pharmaceuticals. Petroleum is used in manufacturing a wide variety of materials and it is
estimated that the world consumes about 90 million barrels each day.

The Petroleum Industry

The petroleum industry refers to the totality of all the industries and stakeholders involved in
the production, conversion and sales/distribution of petroleum products and petroleum
energy. The petroleum energy industry includes oil companies, refineries, petrochemical
industries, transporters, and end-users.

The petroleum industry generally classifies crude oil by the geographic location where it is
produced in (e.g. West Texas Intermediate, Brent, or Oman), its API gravity (an oil industry
measure of density), and its sulphur content. Crude oil may be considered light if it has low
density or heavy if it has high density; and it may be referred to as sweet if it contains
relatively little sulfur or sour if it contains substantial amounts of sulfur.

The geographic location is important because it affects transportation costs to the refinery.
Light crude oil is more desirable than heavy oil since it produces a higher yield of petrol,
while sweet oil commands a higher price than sour oil because it has fewer environmental
problems and requires less refining to meet sulfur standards imposed on fuels in consuming
countries. Each crude oil has unique molecular characteristics which are understood by the
use of crude oil assay analysis in petroleum laboratories.

Petroleum industry in Nigeria

The petroleum industry in Nigeria, Africa is the largest industry and main generator of GDP
in the continent's most populous nation. Shell-BP first discovered oil at Oloibiri in the Niger
Delta in 1956 and production began in 1958. Nigeria's proven oil reserves are estimated by
the U.S. United States Energy Information Administration (EIA) at between 16 and 22 billion
barrels (3.5×109 m3), but other sources claim there could be as much as 35.3 billion barrels
(5.61×109 m3). Its reserves make Nigeria the tenth most petroleum-rich nation, and by the far
the most affluent in Africa. Nigeria has a total of 159 oil fields and 1481 wells in operation
according to the Ministry of Petroleum Resources. The most productive region of the nation
is the coastal Niger Delta Basin in the Niger Delta or "South-south" region which
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encompasses 78 of the 159 oil fields. Nigeria's petroleum is classified mostly as "light" and
"sweet", as the oil is largely free of sulphur. Nigeria is the largest producer of sweet oil in
OPEC. This sweet oil is similar in composition to petroleum extracted from the North Sea.
This crude oil is known as "Bonny light". Names of other Nigerian crudes, all of which are
named according to export terminal, are Qua Ibo, Escravos blend, Brass river, Forcados, and
Pennington Anfan.

As recently as 2010, Nigeria provided about 10% of overall U.S. oil imports and ranked as
the fifth-largest source for oil imports in the U.S. However, Nigeria ceased exports to the US
in July, 2014 due to the impact of shale production in America; India is now the largest
consumer of Nigerian oil. Angola and Nigeria are the largest oil producers in Africa. Nigeria
is Africa’s largest oil producer and has been a member of the Organization of Petroleum
Exporting Countries since 1971. The Nigerian economy is heavily dependent on the oil
sector.

Petroleum and Energy

Petroleum or crude oil is a fossil fuel and is a finite and non-renewable source of chemical
energy which can be used to propel vehicles, generate electricity etc. It has certain advantages
over other sources of energy such as being a very high-density energy source, can be
transported over long distances as well as being a very stable energy resource. However,
certain disadvantages are equally associated with petroleum energy such as negative
environmental impact, fluctuating and unstable cost and availability.

Petroleum energy is mainly used as

- Transportation fuels,
- Heat buildings and
- Production of electricity

Petroleum is used mostly, by volume, for producing fuel oil and petrol, both important
"primary energy" sources. About 84 percent by volume of the hydrocarbons present in
petroleum is converted into energy-rich fuels (petroleum-based fuels), including petrol,
diesel, jet, heating, and other fuel oils and liquefied petroleum gas. The lighter grades of
crude oil produce the best yields of these products, but as the world's reserves of light and
medium oil are depleted, oil refineries increasingly have to process heavy oil and bitumen,
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and use more complex and expensive methods to produce the products required. Because
heavier crude oils have too much carbon and not enough hydrogen, these processes generally
involve removing carbon from or adding hydrogen to the molecules, and using fluid catalytic
cracking to convert the longer, more complex molecules in the oil to the shorter, simpler ones
in the fuels.
Petroleum is still the most used energy source and the best energy source due to its:
High energy density,
Easy transportability and
Relative abundance

Oil has become the world's most important source of energy since the mid-1950s. Petroleum
is also the raw material for many chemical products, including pharmaceuticals, solvents,
fertilizers, pesticides and plastics; the 16 percent not used for energy production is converted
into these other materials. Petroleum is found in porous rock formations in the upper strata of
some areas of the Earth's crust. There is also petroleum in oil sands (tar sands). Known oil
reserves are typically estimated at around 190 km3 (1.2 trillion (short scale) barrels) without
oil sands or 595 km3 (3.74 trillion barrels) with oil sands. Consumption is currently around 84
million barrels (13.4×106 m3) per day, or 4.9 km3 per year. This in turn yields a remaining oil
supply of only about 120 years, if current demands remain static.

Petroleum Energy in Nigeria

Nigeria's primary energy consumption was about 108 Mtoe in 2011. Most of the energy
comes from traditional biomass and waste, which account for 83% of total primary
consumption. The rest is from fossil fuels (16%) and hydropower (1%). Renewable energy
penetration in Nigeria is still in its nascent stage, the only source of renewable energy in the
country is hydro-power and biomass; wind and solar energy have only been deployed in
minuscule amount. Solar energy in Nigeria is majorly used in urban areas for street lighting,
while in rural areas it is used for irrigation project and water pumping. The country has a
target in 2007 to produce 7% of its 2025 energy needs from renewable with solar and hydro
as the major priority.
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Concept of Peak Oil:

Concern over the depletion of the earth's finite reserves of oil, and the effect this would have
on a society dependent on it, is a concept known as peak oil. Peak oil is the projection that
future petroleum production (whether for individual oil wells, entire oil fields, whole
countries, or worldwide production) will eventually peak and then decline at a similar rate to
the rate of increase before the peak as these reserves are exhausted. The peak of oil
discoveries was in 1965, and oil production per year has surpassed oil discoveries every year
since 1980. However, this does not mean that potential oil production has surpassed oil
demand.

The term peak oil is essentially a contraction of the term peak production rate. It is often used
in the media as shorthand for resource depletion, but strictly speaking, it refers only to the
time of maximum output. Depletion is what follows. Oil production, when drawn on a graph,
comes out as a bell curve. Furthermore, it is roughly symmetrical, with the peak of
production reached when about half of the fossil fuel that will ultimately be produced has
been produced. It also has a single peak.

Peak oil theory does not state that the world is running out of oil. Roughly speaking, it's the
half-way point; so much oil still remains in the ground - although this is not essential to the
theory of peak oil, which simply relates to maximum output. However, being at peak oil
essentially means there will soon be a sudden and quite dramatic drop in oil supply. As this is
for geological reasons, things like new extraction technology and the demand for oil cannot
change this

The concept was first suggested by Shell geoscientist Marion King Hubbert in 1956 to
accurately predict that United States oil production would peak between 1965 and 1970 and
subsequently diminish (see graph, right). He was scorned at the time, but in retrospect, US oil
production followed the Hubbert curve: it peaked in 1970 and by the mid-2000s had fallen to
1940s levels. Increased technology and the increasing value of oil do not mean the US oil
industry can produce at its former rate.

Oilfield output follows this shape because extraction follows a pattern: initially there is little
infrastructure in place to extract, remove and refine the oil; then output increases to a peak,
which cannot be exceeded, even with more drilling and increased technology. After peak, oil
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tapers off. Generally speaking, the highest quality and most easily obtained product are
extracted first, and the ‘sour’ and more technically challenging oil afterwards. After a while,
you have to burn more than a barrel of oil to remove a barrel’s worth from the ground, and
the oilfield is abandoned. It is probably not empty at this point; it's just that it is uneconomic
to continue extraction. Hubbert’s model projects the decline in output from oil wells, whole
oilfields, regions and the world as a whole.

Despite a few valiant attempts to create a theory that oil is still being produced in the Earth’s
crust – everyone knows that oil is a non-renewable resource.

Time Production
peak

Production
rate increase Production
rate decline

Production

Standard Hubbert Curve

For applications, the x and y scales are replaced by time and production scales.

Challenge of “Peak Petroleum” (Hubbert hypothesis)

Petroleum is a unique and essential energy source, used as the principal fuel for
transportation, in producing many chemicals, and for numerous other purposes. Global
petroleum production is expected to reach a maximum in the near future and to decline
thereafter, a phenomenon known as “peak petroleum.”

Much of the progress made in all sectors of the economy including health has depended on
intensive energy use, much of it from fossil fuels such as coal, petroleum, and natural gas.
Petroleum is thoroughly integrated into the modern economy, playing key roles in
transportation, heating, agriculture, and manufacturing.

The supply of plentiful, cheap petroleum is expected to peak within the next few decades, and
to decline thereafter. Petroleum will not disappear, but production will fall even as demand
rises. Petroleum scarcity will have wide-ranging impacts across society, including in the
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health sector, and will require a range of adaptations. This transition will be technically and
socially challenging, costly, and possibly abrupt.

In the mid-1950s, a petroleum geologist named M. King Hubbert published a model of oil
field production over time. Hubbert hypothesized that when the total endowment of a limited
resource such as oil is known, and the rate of production (which in this case equals consumption) is
established, the date of peak production can be predicted with relative precision. In this approach,
production increases over time, reaching a peak when half of the recoverable resources have
been extracted. After that point, production inevitably declines at the same rate at which it
grew. Using the estimated total petroleum reserves in the neighboring 48 U.S. states, which
had been essentially undisputed since the 1940s, and historic rates of production, Hubbert
predicted that production from continental U.S. oil reserves would peak in the early 1970s.
This prediction was borne out. Since then, production has peaked in other major oil fields,
such as those in the North Sea off the United Kingdom (in about 1999) and Norway (in about
2001). This phenomenon will at some point occur on a global scale.

Hubbert's original 1956 diagram showing predicted ultimate world petroleum production,
based upon assumed initial reserves of 1,250 billion barrels

There has been considerable debate about the timing of the global Hubbert's peak. Debate
focuses, in part, on the magnitude of existing reserves. There is scientific uncertainty in the
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measurement of reserves, there are no standard protocols for reporting reserves, and both
private firms and national governments have incentives not to report their reserves accurately.

The Role of Petroleum in the Energy Sector

Important things to Note:

1. Petroleum is a major energy source in Nigeria (16%) alongside biomass (83%) and
hydro-energy (1%) of the total primary energy consumption.

2. The petroleum industry in Nigeria, Africa is the largest industry and main generator of
GDP in the continent's most populous nation.

3. Nigeria's proven oil reserves are estimated at between 16 and 22 billion barrels (US
Energy Information Administration (EIA).

4. Nearly all of the country's primary reserves are concentrated in and around the delta
of the Niger River.

5. Nigeria has a total of 159 oil fields and 1481 wells in operation according to the
Ministry of Petroleum Resources

6. Nigeria's petroleum is classified mostly as "light" and "sweet", as the oil is largely
free of sulphur. Nigeria is the largest producer of sweet oil in OPEC. This sweet oil is
similar in composition to petroleum extracted from the North Sea.

7. Most Nigerian crude oil is known as "Bonny light".

8. As recently as 2010, Nigeria provided about 10% of overall U.S. oil imports and
ranked as the fifth-largest source for oil imports in the U.S. However, Nigeria ceased
exports to the US in July, 2014 due to the impact of shale production in America;
India is now the largest consumer of Nigerian oil.

9. Angola and Nigeria are the largest oil producers in Africa.

12. It is estimated that demand and consumption of petroleum in Nigeria grows at a rate
of 12.8% annually

13. Petroleum products are unavailable to most Nigerians and are quite costly, because
almost all of the oil extracted by the multinational oil companies is refined overseas,
while only a limited quantity is supplied to Nigerians themselves.

14. Nigeria is Africa’s largest oil producer and has been a member of the Organization of
Petroleum Exporting Countries since 1971.

The Role of Petroleum in the Energy Sector

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Petroleum (fossil fuel) is our contemporary energy scene is key and very fundamental to the
provision and sustenance of energy especially in critical industrial sectors such as
manufacturing, transport, electricity generation and distribution etc.

The enormous amount of energy that can be harnessed from petroleum which can be
converted into different forms to suit different purposes have made energy from petroleum
very vital to the overall growth of the economy. The figure below shows the pivotal role of
petroleum in our energy sector:

Question: Discuss briefly the roles of petroleum energy in any two named sectors of
the economy?

Transport
sector

Agriculture and Manufacturing/

General goods Petroleum Health Sectors
and Services

Electricity/heat
generation

Energy Derivable from Petroleum

Petroleum in the contemporary energy scene can be said to be:

- A unique energy source
- Energy-dense
- Relatively stable
- portable and
- Abundant
- Though a finite resource
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During the last 150 years, petroleum has assumed a defining role in the world's economy. It is
the principal source of liquid fuel for transportation, and it plays an important role in
chemical manufacturing, power generation, and other uses.

Interestingly, in the contemporary energy scene, the majority of petroleum now extracted—in
the range of 85%—is used to produce fuels. Most of these are transportation fuels such as
gasoline, diesel fuel, and jet fuel, while some, such as fuel oil, liquefied petroleum gas, and
propane, are used for heating and power generation. Petroleum accounts for more than 90%
of transportation fuel, but only for 2% of electricity generation.

Petroleum energy is also commonly known as solid asphalt, tar, or natural gas. At present it is
estimated that as much as 70% of the world’s energy consumption comes crude oil and
natural gas. Because petroleum is a non-renewable energy and because it is one of the most
popular natural energies on earth, there are many concerns over how much petroleum is
remaining in the earth. Although there is almost no part of daily life that is not affected by
petroleum energy, its biggest use in fuel production. The fuels produced are:
- Ethane, propane
- Diesel fuel
- Fuel oils
- Gasoline
- Jet fuel,
- Kerosene, aviation kerosene
- Natural gas
The largest share of oil products is used as "energy carriers", i.e. various grades of fuel oil
and gasoline. These fuels include or can be blended to give gasoline, jet fuel, diesel fuel,
heating oil, and heavier fuel oils. Heavier (less volatile) fractions can also be used to produce
asphalt, tar, paraffin wax, lubricating and other heavy oils.
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Lubricants Other products

1% 11%
Heavy oil
4%
Asphalt
3%
Gasoline
46%
Diesel and
other fuel
26%

Jet Fuel
A breakdown of the products
9% made from a typical barrel of US oil

Advantages of Using Petroleum Energy:

- Fairly affordable alternative to other forms of natural gas
- Very light form of energy source since it does not weigh down cars
Flaws:
- Extraction and processing are very costly
- Spills may become toxic to the aquatic environments, plants etc.
- Produces significant amount of CO2 emissions
- Non-renewable resource and non-green form of energy
Some Reasons for the Declining Nigerian Oil Price
According to the International Energy Agency, in 2011, approximately 33 percent of
Nigeria's crude exports were sent to the United States, making Nigeria its fourth largest
foreign oil supplier. Although total crude imports into the United States are falling, imports
from Nigeria have declined at a steeper rate, according to the International Energy Agency.
The main reasons underlying this trend are that some Gulf Coast refiners have reduced
Nigerian imports in favor of domestically-produced crude, and that two refineries in the
U.S. East Coast, which were significant buyers of Nigerian crude, were idled in late 2011.