Importance of Crude Oil

Importance of crude oil as a vital source of energy and as the most important raw material for our industries can never be over stated. Let’s look at it this way crude oil is estimated to provide about 36% of the world’s energy needs and will likely remain so for many decades to come despite optimistic assumptions about growth in alternative energy sources. Yes… crude oil is still one of the cheapest sources of storable and transportable energy. Modern life is inconceivable without crude oil. The world consumes almost 14 billion liters of oil each day.

Now, let’s look at importance of crude oil in more details:

Importance of crude oil to our industrial needs

Considering the vast number of products that are derived from crude oil, its importance to our industrial growth is overwhelming. Tonnes of crude oil are processed into synthetic materials in our industries. For example: 40 percent of all textiles contain oil, for functional clothing this may be as much as 100 percent. 40 billion liters of oil a year are used to make CDs and DVDs. A single sofa contains 60 liters of oil. Common products like shampoo, detergent, solvents, paint, ink, tires, lubricants, candle wax, roofing material, carpet, synthetic clothing materials, shoes, and hundreds of thousands of other products are made from oil. Hence considering the vast number of industrial products that are derived from it, crude oil is a very versatile substance. Life as we know it today would be extremely difficult without crude oil and its by-products.

Importance of crude oil to our transportation needs

Crude oil can rightly be considered as the engine that drives our transportation needs. From building good road networks to fueling different means of transportation. Yes…about 90 percent of our transportation fuel needs are met by crude oil.

Importance of crude oil to world energy needs

The fact is crude oil provided about 36% of the world’s energy needs, and in the future, crude oil is expected to continue to provide a leading component of the world’s energy mix. In most of the rest of the world, oil is more commonly used for space heating and power generation than for transportation.

Importance of crude oil to world economies

Most countries are significantly affected by developments in the oil market, either as producers, consumers, or both. Looking at it this way, Oil enabled modern agriculture to supply cheap food. Oil supplies cheap energy making the manufacture and transport of many products inexpensive enough to change the entire world economy. Ships, trains, and trucks powered by oil move the majority of the world's products. Oil consumption is directly correlated to Gross Domestic Product. For example, the US uses more oil than any other country, but the US also produces a similar percentage of the world's domestic product. As GDP has been falling in the US, so has oil consumption. At present, there is a fairly direct relationship between oil consumption and economic activity.

Importance of crude oil to agricultural needs

The truth is crude oil is a key product for the world’s agriculture industry, which helps feed the world’s population of more than six billion. If not for oil, modern agriculture might never have reached the yields it has today. Steam powered tractors, that weighed many tons, used coal or wood to power themselves. They were replaced by tractors powered by internal combustion, as well as combines and other farming equipment. Natural gas is used as the feedstock to manufacture most of the fertilizer used by industrial farm operations today.