PCM 201: ORIGIN AND FORMATION OF PETROLEUM

OCCURANCE:
 World Distribution of Petroleum and Bitumen
 Major Oil Producing Countries and World Scenario with respect to Demand and
Supply of Petroleum.
 Forcasting Future Petroleum Demand and Prospect.
 Historical Context: Brief History of petroleum Discovery, Utilization and Processing
1.0 World Distribution of Petroleum and Bitumen
1.1 Petroleum
Crude oil is usually black or dark brown, but can also be yellowish, reddish, tan, or even
greenish. Variations in color indicate the distinct chemical compositions of different supplies
of oil. Petroleum that has few metals or sulfur, for instance, tends to be lighter (sometimes
nearly clear).
Petroleum is used to make gasoline, an important product in our everyday lives. It is also
processed and part of thousands of different items, including tires, refrigerators, life jackets,
and anesthetics.

1.1.2 Formation of Petroleum

Petroleum also called crude oil is a fossil fuel. Like coal and natural gas , petroleum was
formed from the remains of ancient marine organism, such as plant .algae,and bacteria.
Over millions of years under high pressure and high temperature, the remains of these
organisms was transformed into what today is known as fossil fuels. Coal, natural gas,
and petroleum are all fossil fuels that formed under similar conditions.

1.1.3 Classification of Petroleum

The hydrocarbons in crude oil can generally be divided into four categories:

 Paraffins: These can make up 15 to 60% of crude and have a carbon to hydrogen
ratio of 1:2. They are generally straight or branched chains, but never cyclic (circular)
compounds. The shorter the paraffins are, the lighter the crude is.
  Napthenes: These can make up 30 to 60% of crude and have a carbon to hydrogen
ratio of 1:2. They are cyclic compounds refered to as cycloparaffins.
  Aromatics: These can constitute anywhere from 3 to 30% of crude and are
undesirable because burning them results in soot. They have a much less hydrogen
in comparison to carbon than is found in paraffins. They are relativey more viscous
and often solid or semi-solid compared to an equivalent paraffin would be a viscous
liquid under the same conditions.
 Asphaltics: These average about 6% in most crude having a carbon to hydrogen ratio
of approximately 1:1, and thus very dense. They are generally undesirable in crude,
but their 'stickiness' makes them excellent for use in road construction.

1.1.4 World distribution of crude oil

Petroleum is not distributed evenly around the world. Slightly less than half of the world’s
proven reserves are located in the Middle East. After the Middle East are Canada and
the USA, Latin America and Africa, , and the region made up of Russia, Kazakhstan, and
other countries that were once part of the Soviet Union.

The amount of oil and Natural gas produced by given region is not always proportionate to
the size of its proven reserves. For example, the Middle East contains approximately 50
percent of the world’s proven reserves but accounts for only about 30 percent of global oil
production (though this figure is still higher than in any other region). The United States, by
contrast, lays claim to less than 2 percent of the world’s proven reserves but produces
roughly 16 percent of the world’s oil.
Table 1: Oil Reserve by Country
S/N Country World Reserve(in Billion Barrels) World Share

1 Venezuela 299 18.2%

2 Saudi Arabia 266 16.2%

3 Canada 170, 10.4%

4 Iran 157, 9.5%

5 Iraq 143 8.7%

6 Kuwait 101 6.1%

7 UAE 97 5.9%

8 Russia 80, 4.8%

9 Libya 48 2.9%

10 Nigeria 37 2.2%

11 USA 35 2.1%

12 Kaxakhstan 30, 1.8%

13 Qatar 25 1.5%

14 China 25 1.5%
Source: British Petroleum (2016)

1.2 Bitumen

Bitumen is a semi-solid hydrocarbon that is sticky, black and highly viscous. It’s a naturally
occurring substance that is considered to be a complex mixture of high-molecular-weight
hydrocarbons and non-hydrocarbons which can be separated into fractions consisting of oily
material, resins, asphaltenes, and carbenes.

In an oil reservoir, bitumen is a thick, viscous fluid and must be extracted from the ground.
During extraction, a lot of  heat and effort must be used to upgrade it to a better product.
Although bitumen is hard to extract from the ground, it can bubble naturally to the surface
of the Earth in petroleum seeps. These seeps are places where fossil fuels and petroleum
products leak out of the Earth instead of being trapped deep below the ground. In these
seeps, bitumen, asphalt, and tar bubble up into pools.
1.2.1 Uses of Bitumen

a) Bitumen emulsion type contains coat improvers, bitumen, water, anti strips, break
control, and an emulsifying agent as basic ingredients, making it nice for producing
emulsion paints, other households, and industrial products.
b) Is primarily used in civil construction works, such as road construction to bind
aggregate particles to create asphalt concrete.
c) Bitumen has waterproofing properties, which makes it good for making bituminous
waterproofing products.
d) It is used in the production of sealing flat roofs, roofing felt, and in making other
roofing products such as soundproofing materials.
e) Bitumen was also used in early photographic technology. It was smeared on pewter
plates and then exposed to light, thus making a black and white image.
f) Thin bitumen plates are sometimes used by computer enthusiasts for silencing
computer cases or noisy computer parts such as the hard drive.

1.2.2 Composition of Bitumen

Bitumen is composed of four main classes of compounds:

i. Naphthene aromatics ( naphthalene ), consisting of partially hydrogenated polycyclic

aromatic compounds
ii. Polar aromatics, consisting of high molecular weight phenols and carboxylic acids
produced by partial oxidation produced by partial oxidation of the material
iii. Saturated hydrocarbons; the percentage of saturated compounds in asphalt
correlates with its softening point
iv. Asphaltenes, consisting of high molecular weight phenols and heterocyclic
compounds.
Bitumen typically contains 80% by weight of carbon; 10% hydrogen; up to 6% sulfur; and
molecularly, between 5 and 25% by weight of asphaltenes dispersed in 90% to 65%
maltenes.
1.2.3 Classification of Bitumen

The bitumen can be classified into the following grade types:

i. Penetration Grade Bitumen

The penetration grade bitumen is refinery bitumen that is manufactured at different

viscosities. The penetration test is carried out to characterize the bitumen, based on the
hardness. The penetration bitumen grades range from 15 to 450 for road bitumen but the
most commonly used range is 25 to 200.

ii. Oxidized Bitumen Grades

The refinery bitumen is further treated by the introduction of processed air to give oxidized
bitumen. At controlled temperature, air is introduced under pressure into soft bitumen to
form compounds of higher molecular weight.
iii. Cut Back Bitumen

These are a grade of bitumen that comes under penetration grade bitumen, which has a
temporarily reduced viscosity by the introduction of a volatile oil. In areas of road
construction, it is necessary for the material to be fluid in nature at the time of laying i.e.
during surface dressing. It is also essential for the material to regain back to its original
hardness and property after setting.

iv. Bitumen Emulsion

This type of bitumen forms a two-phase system with two immiscible liquids. One of them is
dispersed as fine globules within the other liquid. When discrete globules of bitumen are
dispersed in a continuous form of water, bitumen emulsion is formed. An emulsifier having
a long hydrocarbon chain with either a cationic or anionic ending is used for dispersing the
bitumen globules. The ionic part of the chain has an affinity towards water and the bitumen
is attracted by hydrocarbon part.

v. Polymer Modified Bitumen

Polymer modified bitumen is obtained by the modification of strength and the rheological
properties of the penetration graded bitumen. The polymer used can be either plastic or
rubber. These polymers vary the strength and the viscoelastic properties of the bitumen.

1.2.4 World distribution of Bitumen

There are two primary sources of bitumen. The first is where it occurs naturally — normally
found in the mud at the bottom of lakes and other water sources. Naturally occurring
bitumen used to be the most common form of the material. However, because petroleum-
derived bitumen is normally much purer than naturally occurring bitumen and can be made
in much greater quantities at a lower cost, it has become much more common to use the
artificial form.

Naturally occurring bitumen can be found all over the world, with the two largest deposits
located in Canada and Venezuela. The Athabasca Oil Sands in Alberta is the largest bitumen
deposit in Canada while the Orinoco Belt contains huge deposits of oil sands in Venezuela.

The Canadian deposits cover 140,000 square kilometers (km²),  giving it the second largest
proven oil reserves in the world. Canadian crude bitumen production averaged about
1.1 million barrels (170,000 m³) per day and was projected to rise to 4.4 million barrels
(700,000 m³) per day by 2020. 

1.2.5 Bitumen Distribution in Nigeria

The occurrence of bitumen deposits in Nigeria is indicated at about 42 billion tonnes; almost
twice the amount of existing reserves of crude petroleum. Analytical results suggest that
this potential resource can be used directly as an asphalt binder. Most bitumen used for
road construction in Nigeria is currently imported.

Bitumen is located in Ogun, Ondo, Delta, Rivers and Bayelsa. Despite being blessed with this
Natural mineral in abundance, Nigeria spent $13 million on importation in 2020.”