EGEE 101
Energy and the Environment

Physical Security

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The events of the Gulf war and many other conflicts and embargoes have demonstrated the relative ease by which the flow of oil can be disrupted. The transportation of crude oil over large distances, geographic or political bottlenecks, and the concentration of the oil producing regions makes dependency on oil a dangerous situation. As pointed out already, pipelines are very easy targets. They are hard to protect because of their length and they are not easy to fix when there are problems (man-made or natural). There is a similar threat to energy security if we are dependent on natural gas (like Europe).

map of the United States and the major natural gas pipelines which are concentrated in central and eastern United States.
U. S. Natural Gas Pipelines.
There are major natural gas pipelines linking the fields to the population centers. We use large diameter pipes because there is an economy of scale (Pir2). We also use high pressure to increase the mass of gas that we can transport (65 atmospheres in the large pipes).
Credit: NETL

Moving the Oil Around

Oil resources, which are represented here in red, appear fairly well dispersed according to this map, although lots of oil is under the control of specific countries and regions. But wait.....the U.S. appears to have no oil resources. Why? Click on the link below the map to find out why the U.S. appears empty.

World map showing which countries export oil.
Countries of the world that export oil. Why isn't the U.S. one of them?
Why does the U.S. appear to have no oil resources? What is misleading here is that this map is showing the countries that export oil. Oil in the "red-zones"is oil that will be leaving the country, and 100% of the domestically produced U.S. oil stays home - U.S. oil basically does not leave the country. Remember, the U.S. needs to import a significant amount of oil from other countries just to keep up with its massive oil appetite. Why does the US appear to have no oil resources? Click here for the answer.
Credit: USGS
World map showing the flow of crude oil.
World Crude Oil Flows
Large quantities of oil travel via ship and pipeline, most out of the Middle East, but some from Africa, and South America. Often the pipeline has to cross several countries and sometimes ends up at a port! It would be very easy to mine a stretch of water.
 

Mid East Conflicts

 A Kuwaiti man lighting a gas well on fire.
On withdrawing from Kuwait land, the Iraqis ignited the oil and gas wells, producing significant loss of a valuable resource, lots of pollution, and lots of black smoke that was visible from space, as seen below.
Credit: NOAA

The Iran/Iraq war resulted in reductions of the production of crude oil because of the fighting and deliberate targeting of oil production regions and flooding (did I tell you about Iraq opening the floodgates of a large dam to flood an Iranian oil producing region?) Obviously the oil field fires of the Gulf War demonstrated the outcome of deliberate sabotage. Natural disasters such as earthquakes can also produce fires and disrupt the flow of oil and natural gas.

Satellite image showing evidence of burning oil wells
Ignited oil wells in Kuwait and Iraq are shown in this enhanced satellite image. Very thick black smoke is rising from these fiery hot centers.
Credit: NOAA

Looking at this image you should be able to easily identify the three significant bottlenecks in the routes used to transport oil from the Persian Gulf to Europe and points beyond. This illustrates the significance of geography to a region's political and economic well-being, and the geographic nature of conflicts, disputes, and alliances between regions and countries. This beautiful view of Northeast Africa and the Arabian Peninsula was captured by NASA's Galileo spacecraft, on December 9, 1992, as it left Earth en route to Jupiter. Visible are parts of Egypt (left of center), including the Nile Valley; the Red Sea (slightly above center); Israel; Jordan, and the Arabian Peninsula.

Map of the middle east showing the suez canal, the Strait of Hormuz and the Yemen Red Sea Entry as the bottlenecks in the transportation of oil.
Major bottlenecks in the transportation of middle eastern oil.
Credit: NAVY

Imagine the disruption of oil transportation and world energy supplies, to name just one product, that would occur if the Suez Canal, Strait of Hormuz, or the southern Red Sea port near Yemen were closed, shut down, or locked up.

An aircraft carrier traveling through the Suez Canal.
It is not just merchant traffic. The canal is currently (2014) being widened so the larger vessels can go through.