Sum up the text using your answers to the questions from ex.3.

Text C

INVENTIONS AND DISCOVERIES IN THE PETROCHEMICAL INDUSTRY

 

Read the text.

 

“Rock oil originates as tiny bodies of animals buried in the sediments which, under the influence of increased temperature and pressure acting during an unimaginably long period of time, transform into rock oil”

Academician Mikhailo V. Lomonosov

 

Petroleum, or crude oil, in one form or another, is not a recent discovery. The earliest known oil wells were drilled in China in 347 CE¹ or earlier. They had depths of up to about and were drilled using bits attached to bamboo poles. The first streets of Baghdad were paved with tar, derived from petroleum that became accessible from natural fields in the region. In the 9th century, oil fields were exploited in the area around modern Baku, Azerbaijan, to produce naphtha. The modern history of petroleum began in 1846 with the discovery of the process of refining kerosene from coal by Abraham Gesner. In 1854, Benjamin Silliman, a science professor at Yale University in New Haven, was the first to fractionate petroleum by distillation. These discoveries rapidly spread around the world, and the first Russian refinery was built in the mature oil fields at Baku in 1861. At that time Baku produced about 90% of the world's oil.

When retired railroad conductor Edwin Drake struck oil in 1859 in Titusville, Pennsylvania, he touched off the modern oil industry. For the next 40 years the primary interest in oil was as a source of kerosene, used for lighting lamps. Then came the automobile and the realization that the internal combustion engine ran best on gasoline, a byproduct of the process of extracting kerosene from crude oil. As the demand grew for gasoline to power not only cars but also internal combustion engines of all kinds, chemical engineers discovered a lot of useful byproducts of crude – and the petrochemical industry was born. Oil had truly become black gold.

There are some important landmarks in the history of the petrochemical industry:

1901 is the year when North America’s first oil gusher blows at the Spindletop field near Beaumont in southeastern Texas, spraying more than 800,000 barrels of crude into the air before it can be brought under control.

In 1913 a new method of oil refining was developed. Chemical engineers William Burton and Robert Humphreys of Standard Oil patent a method of oil refining that significantly increases gasoline yields. The chemists discover that by applying both heat and pressure during distillation, heavier petroleum molecules can be broken down, or cracked, into gasoline’s lighter molecules. This process is known as thermal cracking.

In 1920s – 1940s, a range of new compounds made from byproducts of the oil-refining process enters the market. They were synthetic fibers and resins including nylon, acrylics, and polyester, and were used to make everything from clothing and sports gear to industrial equipment, parachutes, and plexiglass.

Among the technical breakthroughs in the world oil industry in the 1920s, a special place is held by the invention in 1922 of the downhole turbodrill motor by the Russian engineer Matvey Kapelyushnikov, which opened the way for the mass introduction of turbodrilling in the industry.

By mounting a derrick and drilling rig onto a submersible barge, Texas oilman Louis Giliasso creates in 1928 an efficient portable method of offshore drilling. The transportable barge allows erecting a rig in a day, which makes exploration easier.

In 1930s, U.S. refineries introduce a new process of alkalinization that increases the octane rating of aviation gasoline to 100. In 1936 a French scientist Eugene Houdry introduces catalytic cracking. By using silica and alumina-based catalysts, he demonstrates that gasoline has a higher octane rating and burns more efficiently.

In 1947 the world’s first commercial oil well is drilled in the Gulf of Mexico, 45 miles south of Morgan City, Louisiana. Eleven oil fields are mapped in the gulf by 1949, with 44 exploratory wells in operation.

In 1955 the first jack-up oil-drilling rig is designed for offshore exploration. The rig features long legs that can be lowered into the seabed to a depth of 500 feet, allowing the platform to be raised to various heights above the level of the water.

The introduction of digital seismology in oil exploration in 1970s increases accuracy in locating underground pools of oil. The technique of using seismic waves to look for oil is based on determining the time interval between the sending of a sound wave and the arrival of reflected waves at one or more seismic detectors.

Over the next decade, remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) are developed for subsea oil work. Controlled from the surface, ROVs vary from beach ball-size cameras to truck-size maintenance robots.

1990s – the introduction of several new tools and techniques designed to reduce the costs and risks of drilling, including reducing potential damage to the geological formation and improving environmental protection.

In 2000 The Hoover-Diana, a 63,000-ton deep-draft caisson vessel, goes into operation in the Gulf of Mexico. A joint venture by Exxon Mobil and BP, it is a production platform mounted atop a floating cylindrical concrete tube anchored in 4,800 feet of water. The entire structure is 83 stories high, with 90 per cent of it below the surface. Within half a year it is producing 20,000 barrels of oil and 220 million cubic feet of gas a day. Two pipelines carry the oil and gas to shore.

 

¹ Christian Era or Common Era = C.E. - н.э.

 

Choose the best answer.

1. Where did oil production begin?

a. in the Caspian region;

b. in Saudi Arabia;

c. in Syberia.

2. The biggest oil producer in the mid 19^th century was

a. America;

b. Azerbaijan;

c. China.

3. Crude oil production increased by the end of the 20^th century due to

a. manufacturing of lightning lamps;

b. automobile era;

c. extracting kerosene.

4. Digital seismology enabled to

a. locate underground pools of oil more carefully;

b. locate underground pools of oil with less cost;

c. locate underground pools of oil more exactly.

5. ROVs were introduced in

a. 80s;

b. 90s;

c. 2000s.