Petroleum is a fossil fuel. This means it comes from the remains of ancient plants and animals. These remains were buried by rock and were squeezed tight. This pressure helped turn the remains into a mixture called petroleum. The process took millions of years.

Petroleum is often called oil when it is a liquid. There are also gas and solid forms. People can use petroleum to make many products. Petroleum can be made into gasoline. It can also help make tires, clothes and trash bags. But petroleum is a nonrenewable resource. It cannot be replaced once it is used up.

Petroleum is found underground. People use large drilling machines to get to it. These machines drill deep into the land and can even drill under the ocean. But drilling and using petroleum harms the environment. Burning petroleum puts greenhouse gases into the air. This is warming the planet and making climate change worse.

Many countries have oil in their land. But four countries have more than half of the oil in the world. They are Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Canada. The United States, Saudi Arabia and Russia produce the most oil. The United States, China and India use the most oil.

Uses of Petroleum

Petroleum is used for cars, trains and planes. But burning petroleum for cars and planes hurts the environment. It lets more pollution and greenhouse gases into the air.

Petroleum can help in an emergency. Diesel is made from petroleum. Diesel can fuel generators. These machines can generate electricity during emergencies. Hospitals use generators if the electricity goes out.

Relying on diesel too much can cause problems. Sometimes there is not enough diesel for everyone. This happened in 2022 in the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico. Much of the island lost power after a big hurricane. Many people needed diesel to power their homes. But too many people were trying to get it at the same time. They had to wait in long lines. Even some hospitals were not able to get diesel.

Petroleum is not just used for fuel. It can make different kinds of plastic. But plastic hurts the environment too. Plastic fills up oceans and landfills, large areas where trash ends up. Harmful substances come off plastic as it breaks down. Those substances and small bits of plastic can get into groundwater. Humans and other animals then use this water. This could make them sick.

Drilling for Petroleum

Drilling petroleum hurts the environment. Companies look for oil in the ocean using loud, booming sounds. This noise hurts ocean animals like whales. They use sound to find food. They can lose their hearing from these powerful sounds.

Clearing land for oil wells also hurts the environment. Oil wells are holes drilled into the ground. Petroleum can be brought up through the wells. Workers cut down trees and clear land to build wells. This can break up animals’ homes. This happened in the Murchison Falls National Park in Uganda. Elephants had to change where they look for food.

Wells can also leak or spill. When oil spills into the environment, it can kill animals. Oil spills also damage the environment for many years. The Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010 is an example of this. Thousands of sea turtles died right away because of the spill. Today, animals still don’t live in the area where the spill happened. There are not as many plants there, so animals can’t find food.

People can also get hurt from oil drilling. Drilling is a dangerous job. People can die in explosions while at work. People who live near oil wells can also get sick. Pollution from the wells goes into the water and air. This kind of pollution can cause cancer.

Some people fight to stop oil wells from being put on their land. Oil companies are trying to use Indigenous land for oil drilling. This is happening in Brazil. An Indigenous activist named Luene Karipuna stands up for her community. She is trying to stop oil companies from drilling on her people’s land.

People cannot rely on petroleum forever. It cannot be replaced after it is used. Someday, the world will run out of petroleum. Some scientists say it will run out in the 2050s or 2070s.

History of Petroleum Use

Ancient people used petroleum for different things. People in western Asia used it like glue. They used it to make buildings. Ancient people in China also used petroleum. They used petroleum gas to burn away the water from very salty water to leave only salt. Indigenous Americans used it to make waterproof canoes.

The first oil well was drilled in the U.S. town of Titusville, Pennsylvania, in 1859. It made getting oil out of the ground easier. Before that, people dug wells by hand. Now they could use a machine. People began using oil more and more. They used it to power machines in factories. But burning oil created a lot of air pollution. This kind of pollution started the climate change happening today.

Drilling can also take place in the ocean. This creates offshore wells. The first one was made in 1897. Today, people work on structures called oil rigs to drill in the ocean. These rigs are large structures that stretch from the sea floor up to the surface. Workers live on these rigs.

When the oil in an offshore well runs out, people close it. They also leave the oil rig behind. Ocean animals like coral live on these old rigs. The corals use it to make a reef. It becomes a new home for animals. But old wells can hurt the environment. They can leak pollution into the water.

Replacements for Petroleum Products

Scientists are creating products to replace petroleum. These replacements are better for the environment. For example, biomass can be used to make fuel. Biomass is made from waste like dead plants from farms. Fuel made from biomass can power cars just like oil.

People can also get power from the sun. This could replace diesel generators. Solar panels make energy from the sun’s rays. After the 2022 hurricane in Puerto Rico, some people did not lose power. These people had solar panels.

Countries also have to work together to replace petroleum. Countries at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in 2023 promised to use less petroleum. They also promised to use more renewable energy sources like solar power. People across the world are working hard, but it will take a lot of cooperation to replace petroleum products.