What is Crude Oil?

What is crude oil? And what is all this talk about? Crude oil is a black, viscous slurry of different hydrocarbons, other organic molecules, and trace amounts of metals that can be separated and chemically changed into useful fuels and lubricants like gasoline, diesel, propane, jet fuel, and even wax.

Before we can really understand what all that means, we have to understand hydrocarbons. After a little organic chemistry, we’ll talk about where oil comes from and then how we transform crude into useful products. Then we’ll talk about how much oil we use in the United States and world-wide. Finally, we’ll wrap things up by talking about some of the problems the world is facing with oil and where things can go from here.

Intro: What is Oil?

1) What are hydrocarbons?

2) Where does oil come from?

3) How do we make gasoline and other useful fuels?

4) How much oil do we use?

5) What’s the trouble with oil?