Final Blog

This being my final web log I would like to recap and express my understanding of the web log. I believe this is the newest form of getting the latest information on a subject to the masses. With its relative easy setup and upgrading capabilities allowing for regular editing/ updates make it invaluable to the common Joe.
With Blogging we were introduced to a new environment of information transfer that allowed us to either read a fictional tale of battle from an elementary student or an online diary of the personal life of a teenager. There was also the opportunity to read the writing of others overseas in combat areas still with internet capabilities and we heard their experiences on the wall.

For my theme for this class I researched the origins and ways of transport of the substance that has America by the (those we don’t speak of). With the assignments from this course I have learned a great deal on oil trafficking and why the oil venders prices keep going up and I am sad to say greed is an outspoken part in this story. There are many things that I have learned from this course and one of them is that you can find a lot about a topic on the net. Which goes along with the lesson because now we as the students are educated on the setup of web logs and can now let our voices be one of the many on the world net no matter the topic.

Oil Demand Alternatives

The United States in particular relies on oil to an unbelievable extent, it has been estimated as much as 21 million barrels of crude is used and about 60% percent of that crude is imported. Since we as the consumer use this much, it is safe to say we are addicted right? Some may say so, other things put strains on the oil supply as well these may include lack of refineries or recently the political tensions of the oil producing Middle East countries i.e. Iran, Saudi Arabia, Africa.
I mentioned refineries did you know that there are less refineries today than there was 20 years ago? We are figuratively shooting ourselves in the foot we went from 300 to about 150.The last refinery being put into service in Louisiana in 1976. This has been referred to as social engineering mentioned here at this website. Some ways we can save ourselves from the restricting and expensive oil crunch are to practice alternative power solutions things such as utilizing the wind and sun to power the small creature comforts. Of course these things have there disadvantages. Some being solar energy( the use of the sun on technology to store electrical energy) now solar energy would best be used in only some areas whereas places like Great Britain, a climate with a lot of cloud cover this would not be the most advantageous location. Were wind farms (large windmills) may be more useful. We reviewed some subjects involving why we have high prices in fuel and we also talked about different means of power generation.

References cited
Alejandro Bodiro. “Why does gas keep rising? Greed, demand, politics blamed”
Free press blog April 30th 2007

Oil Demand

We have reviewed the acquisition of the oil from deep beneath the earth’s surface from hundreds of years of decomposition of plants, animals, and other decomposable materials. We went over some of the countries the oil is procured from, and we also discussed the many ways of transportation available to the world to economize on the money making fossil fuel. Now let us look at the demand for the oil and the general need for the fuel that powers our world as we know it.
Something that some are aware of who are familiar with economics is supply and demand. This is described first as supply as the amount of goods available at a given price at any time. Demand is how many consumers desire the goods that are in supply. In other words chances are the consumer will want more and more making the oil very valuable towards those wanting to have a more luxurious lifestyle. Unfortunately like most things involving luxuries greed is present in no short supply. This Has especially been proven in the Exxon Mobil/ BP scandal were there was significant price gouging to make extensive profits by taking advantage of the little guy namely you and me. Price gouging is referred to as simply raising the prices of there gas to an unneeded extent to make the big business more money. This being said what are we to do about ridding ourselves from the addiction that is oil and its uses.

References cited
Alejandro Bodiro. “Why does gas keep rising? Greed, demand, politics blamed”
Free press blog April 30th 2007

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070430/BUSINESS01/70430006/1048/SPORTS

Potential sources and plan

In this next chapter of electronic media I would like to review my next topic within oil trafficking and that is Demand of oil from the public. In my earlier blogs I reviewed the acquisition of the oil from the ground. The import and export by multiple countries, meaning the loading and transport of the oil across the vast expanses of the world. All this to accommodate the will of semi-selfish citizens who all they want is to drive their large escalades to and from work 2 blocks away from their place of residents.

For the demand topics I will look into the gas prices uses and inflation of various stations across the world, mostly those in hot water for price gouging. For potential sources of my analysis paper I would have to say internet sources are my best fountain of knowledge. It is my belief that the demand of this country in particular for an endless supply of oil is a possible catalyst for a bad time in this great country. Other sources involve various reports of oil related happenings like public outcry, crime, punishments, and protests involving oil/fuel.

Pipelines (The other way)

With the review of the sea transportation of oil we looked at the different types of ships and the ways they transport their precious cargo. Now that the sea is out of the way let’s speak about the land based transport of oil. Land based pipes is said to be The most safest, efficient and the most economical of the transports seeing it is just a fixed drain with stations along the way to push the oil along. The world has currently uses about 30-40,000 types of pipelines diameter differs from 8-24 inches throughout the country to transport oil. Many located in Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana. One system that I would like to mention is the Trans-Atlantic Pipeline.

The Trans-Atlantic Pipeline was designed to transport oil from the Alaska northern slopes to the ice free zone port of Valdez for transport onto a ship class being that of previously reviewed. I mentioned this specific pipe line because of its sheer size and productivity for a marvel built in 1977 and still just as important. The Length of the Pipe is over 800 miles in length with a diameter of roughly 48 inches. Should anyone wish to build one for there own amusement the going cost is over 8 billion dollars (back in ’75) when the pipe was first being built.

References cited
http://www.alyeska-pipe.com/pipelinefacts.html
http://www.pipeline101.com/Overview/crude-pl.html

Think anyone will notice

Transporting oil on the high seas can be as much profitable and economical as it can be devastating to the environment. This brings me to my next branch off of the oil trafficking tree of blogs. The spilling of oil off the coast by a tanker or drilling rig either by negligence or accident and ever so help us on purpose.

Now I say on purpose because during the Gulf War oil was intentionally dumped to aggravate and hinder the production of only to have American planes bomb the pump station to turn off the pipeline from further spilling into the sea. As for accidents are concerned there are documented cases since the beginning of oil transportation of said spilling. A few worth mentioning are the Exxon Spill off Prince William Point off the shores of Alaska. To this day this incident occurring in 1989 is the largest oil spill to record dumping millions of gallons into the ocean. With spills of this magnitude it is evident of the disruption to the local wildlife for which if put in contact either by touch or consumption is hazardous to there health. What caused this wreck was the meeting of the ships hull (bottom of boat) with a shallow reef in the path of the tanker trying to avoid hitting an ice berg (picking up a trend with ice bergs). As pictured below one method really available to us in the cleanup of an oil spill is the burning of the top crude where the oil is most flammable.

Unfortunately this is also a double edged sword where in burning it releases air pollution on a massive scale making it efficient but bad in the long run.

References cited
http://www.ishttp://arcticcircle.uconn.edu/SEEJ/Alaska/miller2.htm
raeli-weapons.com/history/desert_storm/Desert_Storm.html

The Monster of the Sea

As we have touched on before oil has to be transported to its destination in a timely matter in regards to the profits of the company. There are different types of transportation techniques use today that despite all the latest technology has been used for many of years, maybe not the same tools but same concepts. These methods involve the land, and sea two of the oldest ways of transport that even grandpa can understand.

The first method I would like to touch on is by sea using the giant oil tanker. These ships are monumental they of course come in different sizes to support there tasks and the give an example take a look at this image of an oil tanker traveling under the Golden Gate bridge, notice the comparison in size. Take for instance the series of Alaskan ships purchased to transport oil around the Iceberg ridden shores of Alaska. I am sure everyone has seen Titanic right well think of an accident like that but instead of Leonado Dicaprio polluting the ocean imagine all those millions of barrels worth of oil blackening up the coast, and destroying the local ecosystem.

To protect from this disaster these ships are double hulled to protect from possible collision related spills off the coast this ship pictured was built in San Diego it is considered state of the art with a 1 billion dollar price tag to build from scratch. Generally these types of ships can hold about 1.3 billion barrels of oil in the tanks and transport just about anywhere with water access.