Oil and the Middle East

                                           

                                                   "Oil" 

Probably one of the valuable and lifesaver things for human beings is OIL, It is one of the most important raw materials we have. Every day we use hundreds of things that are made from oil. Oil is even considered one of the most valuable assets of the 21st Century.

Oil also provides important jobs to the people. Tens of thousands of people work in the oil industry. Each week Britain & the USA produce nearly two million tonnes of oil. This is worth about a 37million pounds a day to the people of both countries.

Origination of Oil:

Much of the world is covered by the sea, the sea contains many tiny animals and plants called "Plankton" they get their energy to live from the sunlight when they die they sink at the bottom of the sea.

Those who died millions of years ago are the source of today's Oil.

How to get the Oil from Beneath:

Oil can get trapped in pockets underground in between the porous rocks(rocks with gaps between the grains), with the certain pressure they can move upwards from the source rock when they met the Cap Rock(a rock with no spaces in between) then the Oil gets trapped.

To meet the above requirement, a well is drilled so that the oil and the other liquids travel up the borehole. The liquids found beneath the sea are a complicated mixture of water, crude oil, and gas. The oil and other fluids need to be separated before they can transport safely.

The above process is very complicated and expensive, it costs millions of pounds to drill a well and only a few are very successful.

Transportation:

Oil is often found far away under the sea, they need to transport to the oil refinery through the pipeline or in a tanker. The crude oil is found in remote places such as deserts, jungles, or the Arctic. 

Transportation of crude oil to the oil refinery is sometimes very complicated.

Final Step:

In the oil refinery itself through chemical work, crude oil is turned into hundreds of useful products. Thousands of people are employed to make sure all these useful products get to the millions of people who want to buy them.

                                              Middle East

Before starting with the correlation between Oil and the Middle east. Let's First understand the Area and the Region that the middle east consists of in our globe.

Middle east is the transcontinental(between more than one continent) region that falls between the Asia and European continent. but also in the parts of  Northern Africa & Southeastern Europe. The Western border of the Middle East is defined by the Medittairaen sea, where Israel, Lebanon, and Syria rest opposite from Greece and Italy in Europe.

The Middle East consists of a total of 18 countries stretching from Israel to UAE. where 13 out of 18 are Arab Nations. The most populous countries in the region are Egypt, Iran & Turkey, where Saudi Arabia is the largest middle eastern country by area.

The RELATION:

The Middle East has half of the world's oil reserves & remains at the center of gravity in the global oil market. The Middle East represents 70% of world oil reserves. Saudi Arabia is by far the region's largest oil producer. & exporter accounting for approximately 42% of production from the middle east followed by the Iran-19%, UAE-11%, Iraq-6%, Kuwait-11%, Qatar-4%, Oman-5% & Syria-2%.

Currently, 60-65% of exports from the Middle East are destined for Asian Markets. The Middle East region supplied about 32% of the 3.4 Billion Barrels of crude oil to the United States alone.

Why So much oil in the Middle East:

1. The Favourable position of the region during Mid Global Warming coupled with sea-level rise & Plankton Abundance.
2. Marine source rocks containing oil-prone kerogen types
3. An Enormous thickness of sediments provided the necessary storage for the huge amounts of generated oil
4. The Presence of effective regional seals, both marine shales & evaporites at the bottom. 
5. Relatively slow motion of Arabian Plate beneath the ground.

                                          

                                   Fig: Qatif Plant, Saudi Arabia.

Thus the Middle East becomes the King of Oil & holds large proximity in the global world. The Middle East oil will help shape our destiny through this second half of the 21st century.

Facts about Oil & Middle East: 

1. Arab countries hold more proven oil reserves than any other region (713.6 billion barrels), comprising more than 43% of the world’s total proven reserves.
2. With an average output of 26.3 million barrels per day in 2011, the Arab world produces nearly a third of world oil supply.
3. Saudi Arabia holds more than 265 billion barrels of proven oil reserves, 16% of global total reserves. Four of the world’s ten largest producers of oil are Arab oil producers, including Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait and Iraq.
4. Oil covers 52.9% of the Arab world’s energy needs, natural gas 45.4%, with the remainder provided by alternative energy sources.
5. Aggregate Arab oil consumption amounted to 6.98 million b/d in 2010, about 8% of world demand for oil, but with the world’s fastest regional average annual growth rate of 3.9% over the past decade.