Natural oil as soil pollution source: genesis, exploitation and processing

Abstract

In this paper, the actual problems of oil geology and technology are presented, mainly for specialists in environmental sciences. After a short historic introduction, the genesis of natural hydrocarbons, the process of oil and gas accumulation, the conservation in traps and the geological and geophysical methods of the discovery of the productive structures and their exploration are discussed. The terms like mother rock, reservoir rock, hydrocarbon trap and gas or oil productive structures are explained, too. After presenting the methods and the tools for drilling the oil and gas wells, the way of oil from the production well to the consumers of the oil products – fuels, chemical products – is described: the well head installations, the pipelines, the separation parks, the refineries and the deposits of the oil-derived products. Finally, the “hot spots”, where the oil and the oil-based products may cause soil contaminations are discussed.