Undiscovered until a few years ago, the southern England area known as The Weald contains a largish lake of crude oil! The area just south of London spreads for around 3,500 square miles and includes Gatwick, one of London’s prime airports. Thanks to evolution and apparently the fact that Africa rammed into Europe causing several mountain ranges and folds in the surface, of … [Read more...]
US Export Oil Ban
Since the mid 70s oil crisis, the US has banned the export of oil to other nations to keep the home market fuelled up. They have allowed oil to be imported to fill the tanks though. US oil is mostly heavy although down south it is light and so many refineries are geared to the heavier sulphur laden crude. For the past few years, oil prices have tumbled as OPEC has increased … [Read more...]
Just In Time Processes – Oil Extraction
A few weeks ago I wrote an updated article about Just in Time Manufacturing and it's use in the manufacturing of vehicles, mainly the assembly lines. Well, I then read a fascinating article about how this concept was used in another related industry - oil extraction. It seems that over the years, the cost of extracting oil has been rising and so has waste, inefficiences have … [Read more...]
How Much Oil in a Barrel?
Every time the news is on we hear about the price of oil because this commodity is so entrenched in everyone's lives, whether you drive or not. So many products come out of a barrel of oil or use a component refined from crude oil. The barrel as a measurement tool has been around for hundreds of years as it was easy to transport and measure at the same time. However, … [Read more...]
