Question

Petroleum is referred to as “black gold”. Give reasons.

Answer 1

As Petroleum and its derivatives are extremely valuable they are also known as the Black Gold.

• Petroleum is drilled from oil fields located in coastal areas and off-shore, it is found between the layers of rocks.
• The crude oil is then sent to refineries which process this crude oil to produce different products such as lubricants, plastics, wax and most importantly petrol, kerosene and diesel.
• The places in India where petroleum is extracted are deltas of Krishna and Godavari rivers, Bombay High in Mumbai and Digboi in Assam.
• The major petroleum producing countries are Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, Russia, Venezuela, Algeria, USA and Qatar.
• Natural gas and petroleum are located far below earth’s surface. To extract them, deep wells are drilled.
• Examples of non-metallic minerals are petroleum and coal, which are also known as mineral fuels.
• The main sources of conventional energy are fossil fuels such as natural gas, petroleum and coal.
• There are very limited reserves of these mineral fuels.
• The rate of their formation is very very small when compared to the rate at which they are consumed by the global population. Hence they will be exhausted very quickly.