Fossil Fuels

L/O ;- To know what fossil fuels are and how they are formed

World oil supplies are set to run out faster than expected, warn scientistsBy Daniel HowdenThursday, 14 June 2007 Scientists have criticised a major review of the world's remaining oil reserves, warning that the end of oil is coming sooner than governments and oil companies are prepared to admit. BP's Statistical Review of World Energy, appears to show that the world still has enough "proven" reserves to provide 40 years of consumption at current rates. The assessment, based on officially reported figures, has once again pushed back the estimate of when the world will run dry.However, scientists led by the London-based Oil Depletion Analysis Centre, say that global production of oil is set to peak in the next four years before entering a steepening decline which will have massive consequences for the world economy and the way that we live our lives.According to "peak oil" theory our consumption of oil will catch, then outstrip our discovery of new reserves and we will begin to deplete known reserves.Colin Campbell, the head of the depletion centre, said: "It's quite a simple theory and one that any beer drinker understands. The glass starts full and ends empty and the faster you drink it the quicker it's gone."Dr Campbell, is a former chief geologist and vice-president at a string of oil majors including BP, Shell, and Exxon. He explains that the peak of regular oil - the cheap and easy to extract stuff - has already come and gone in 2005. Even when you factor in the more difficult to extract heavy oil, deep sea reserves, polar regions and liquid taken from gas, the peak will come as soon as 2011, he says. From there we are in decline!

Why do you think the views of the scientist and the petrol company may be different?

Fossil FuelsCoal Oil

Natural Gas

They formed millions of years ago from the remains of living things

Coal was formed from plants, and oil and natural gas from sea creatures. When the living things died, they were gradually buried by layers of rock

The buried remains were put under pressure and chemical reactions heated them up, gradually changing into fossil fuels

How are fossil fuels made?How are fossil fuels made?

Coal FormationCoal Formation

Oil & Gas FormationOil & Gas Formation

Why are fossil fuels non-renewable?

What do we use fossil fuels for?

Worksheet

• Using the fossil fuel worksheet cut out the boxes at the bottom, and stick them next to the appropriate picture

Coal was formed from dead plants that lived long ago

More layers of the mud squashed the fossils. Heat from inside the Earth turned the mud into rock and turned the plant fossils to coal

When the plants died they were buried in mud. The mud stopped them rotting away

More mud buried the dead animals, turning them into oil and gas, which get stuck under a layer of cap rock, not letting them through

The plants and animals fell to the seabed when they died and got buried in mud and sand. The mud stopped them rotting away

Oil and gas were formed from tiny plants and animals that lived in the sea millions of years ago.

Task

Your task is to explain how fossil fuels are formed by

a)Drawing a cartoon (with captions)

b)Creating a role play

c) Writing a radio play

d) Making a short video

Why do you think so much oil is found under the sea?

This map shows the countries with the largest amounts of oil. What does this tell us about what

these countries may have looked like millions of years ago?