Conventional Oil, a Dummies Version

Around the Antisocial Network, one of our favorite adages is, "It is better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool than to open it and remove all doubt." It's a crying shame that some freelancers have never learned this lesson, people like eHow.com's Tom Lutzenberger, for instance. Eager to collect his stipend from that font of misinformation, Tom seized upon the topic, "What Are the Advantages and Disadvantages of Conventional Oil?" which is now (for some unknown reason) at ItStillRuns.com. As is so often the case with English majors freelancing in science, Tom wandered way, way outside his expertise to "answer" this question.

Now, we won't argue (much) with his list of advantages, except for one. Tom finds it necessary to "inform" his readers that,

"Oil is fairly easy to produce. Once an oil field is found, mining operations simply need to drill down to tap into the natural oil reservoir below. Then, with the natural pressure the oil is under due to earth's weight, it flows easily out of the drilled escape. When controlled, the oil can be pumped and packaged into millions of barrels for transportation for years. Drill points exist worldwide in the U.S., the Middle East, Brazil and Asia."

Our staff petroleum geologist strenuously objects to the "fairly easy" bit. Oh, sure, it's easier to find than diamonds, but... and this "mining" bull? Get this through your thick heads, journalism majors: crude oil isn't "mined"! Then there's more Lutzenberger-style rubbish about a "drilled escape" – what the heck is this "escape"? Oil  wells aren't clocks! That's not to mention the ridiculous notion that oil is "packaged into... barrels for transportation." And then he continues by inventing a term unknown in the petroleum industry, the "drill point" -- sounds like something out of carpentry... What a moron. Given Lutzenberger's misinformation about oil exploration and production, it's hard to believe anything this idiot says. Sure enough, he quickly gets himself in further hot water with the doofus claim that

"Oil cannot be broken down to a level that just rots away and disappears such as organic waste...."

Uhhh, dude: crude oil (despite your earlier misstatement that it's "also known as mineral oil") is an organic compound. The dangers you're discussing here are a result of the fact that oil is an organic poison. So at least get that right! That's why we started the Antisocial Network: to expose the utter stupidity of people getting paid to misinform –the people we call the Dumbass of the Day.

[Note: on second reading, we have to wonder if the OQ wanted a comparison between conventional motor oil and synthetic motor oil; a topic FAR from what Lutzenberger seized upon!]

copyright © 2015-2022 scmrak

DD - OIL