Lesson video

Hello, my name is Mr. Marsh and I'm here today to teach you all about distribution of oil reserves and factors affecting growth of oil consumption.

So grab everything that you need for today's lesson and let's get going.

There are three key terms for today's lesson, and those are oil reserves, industrialization, and finally, emerging countries.

Oil reserves refers to locations where oil is found in significant amounts.

Industrialization refers to the process by which an economy is transformed from primarily agricultural to one based on manufacturing and industry.

And finally, emerging countries refers to nations with social or business activities in the process of rapid growth and industrialization.

There are three learning cycles for today's lesson.

I'm gonna start with learning cycle one, which is all about how is global demand for oil changing? Now on the screen in front of you, you can see two different maps.

On the left hand side, you can see energy use per person from 1983.

On the right hand side, you can see energy use per person from 2023.

Now my question to you, as can be seen at the bottom of the screen is, how has global energy use per person changed in the 40 years between 1983 and 2023? Now, you may like to pause the video here whilst you really consider your answer to that question, or better still, have a discussion with someone near you.

So what did you come up with? Well, generally, energy use per person has increased globally.

As we can see, South America, South East Asia and parts of Africa have all increased in their energy use, as can be seen via the changing colour on the two maps in front of you.

They have slowly moved towards a darker shade of orange or red, indicating an increased use of energy.

Furthermore, Europe has generally either remained at the same level or even decreased.

So we can see how global energy consumption is generally changing and generally increasing.

This graph now in front of you is showing global energy use between 1900 and 2021, by energy source.

Now I have two questions for you.

The first of which is, which source of energy has the highest use? And the second question is, can you suggest a reason for that sudden decrease in energy use in 2020? Now, once again, you may like to pause the video here whilst you really study that graph in front of you and consider your own answers to those two questions or better still, once again, have a discussion with someone near you.

An increase in demand for energy has been met by increasing supply of all energy types, as the graph in front of you does a great job in illustrating.

Nevertheless, since 1960, oil has been the world's main source of energy when it overtook coal.

Now the sudden decrease in 2020 was caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused there to be less travel as well as less industrial production.

Time now for a learning check, and it says "True or false?" Oil has always been the world's largest contributor of energy.

So what you need to do right now then is pause the video here whilst you consider and then select your answer.

And the correct answer is false.

Now, once again, I'd like you to pause the video here whilst you consider as to why or how that statement is false.

And the reason it's false is that oil has, since the late 1800s, been a key part of the world's energy mix, but it was only around 1960 when it actually overtook coal as the main source of global energy, a position it has actually retained ever since.

So really, really well done if you were able to get those two answers correct.

Time now for another learning check.

And the first question says, what global event in 2020 caused demand for oil and other energy sources to decrease? Now I'd like you to pause the video here whilst you consider and try to recall the information from before for the correct answer.

And the correct answer was the COVID-19 pandemic.

The second question now says to suggest two reasons why demand for oil and other energy sources decreased during the pandemic.

Now, once again, I'd like you to pause the video here whilst you try your best to recall the two pieces of information.

And the correct answers are, so your reasons may have included the following: restrictions on travel, less industrial production due to people needing to isolate at home.

So really, really well done if you were able to get any of those answers there correct.

Now this graph in front of you is showing oil consumption or oil use by global region from 1965 all the way up to 2023.

Now, once again, I have two questions for you to consider whilst really studying that graph in front of you.

The first question says, which global region had the biggest increase? And the second question says, what other trends can you actually identify? Now, once again, you may like to pause the video here whilst you really study that graph in front of you and try your best to answer those two questions you see in front of you, or better still, have a discussion with someone near you.

So what were you able to identify? Well, Asia has seen the largest increase, from 2,500 terawatt hours in 1965 to 26,000 in 2023.

Energy use in North America and Europe has actually decreased over the last 20 years, Africa South and Central America, the Middle East and Oceania have all seen increases.

Time now for a learning check, and it says to find and correct the two mistakes shown in Laura's statement.

So what you need to do then is pause the video here whilst you read through Laura's statement and do your best to find and correct those two mistakes.

Okay, so now let's read through Laura's statement.

So it says: All continents and regions except Europe and, not South America, but North America, have seen their oil use increase over the last 20 years.

The continent where oil consumption increased the most was, not Africa, but Asia.

Really, really well done if you were able to identify those two mistakes and also able to correct them as well.

We're on now to our two practise questions for our first learning cycle.

And the first one says to describe the global pattern of oil consumption per person using that map that's in front of you.

I'm gonna give you some tips to really help you with your answer.

I would like you to start with an overview.

Try to use compass directions, name specific countries or regions, identify highest and lowest, and always try to refer to the key.

The second question says to use the graph, as you can see on the screen in front of you, to describe how global oil consumption has changed between 1965 and 2023.

Now, once again, I have some tips for you.

First of all, start with an overview.

Name specific regions, identify highest and lowest and try to use statistics and dates.

So there you are, please pause the video here whilst you attempt these two practise tasks.

Best of luck.

And now for some feedback.

So for the first question, Your answer may have included the following: I've said that, in general, oil consumption per person is higher in the Northern Hemisphere than in the South.

North America, Western and northern Europe and northern Asia, together with Australia and New Zealand, have high energy use of between 10,000 and 100,000 kilowatt hours.

It continues: In Central and South America, oil use per person is at a medium value of between 10,000 and 30,000 kilowatt hours per person, and so is much of Southeast Asia and North Africa.

Central African countries currently have no data.

So the lowest value is found in Pakistan, with a score of under 1000 kilowatt hours.

The highest values are found in the Middle East, for example, Saudi Arabia and in North America, for example, Canada.

And now feedback for the second question.

Now once again, your answer may have included the following: I've said that in 1965, most oil was used in North America and Europe.

North America used around 8,000 terawatt hours, while other regions used much less.

By 2023, the Asia Pacific region used the most oil, over 20,000 terawatt hours.

Oil consumption also stayed high in North America around 15,000 terawatt hours, as well as Europe, but did not grow as fast.

The answer continues: Other places like the Middle East, Africa, and South America used more oil over time, but still less than the biggest regions.

Africa used the least, just over 2000 terawatt hours in 2023.

Overall, all regions used more oil, but Asia Pacific had the biggest increase in oil consumption.

So really well done if you were able to include anything like that in your own answer.

Time now for our second learning cycle, and this one is all about, where are oil reserves as well as production actually located? Now, as you can see on the map in front of you, which is showing the distribution of oil reserves as of 2021, while oil reserves are unevenly distributed globally, major reserves though can be found in the following regions.

First of all in North America, particularly Canada, also Russia, Venezuela in the northern part of South America as well as the Middle East.

Now my question to you is what physical and human factors do you think affect the distribution of oil reserves? Now you may like to pause the video here whilst you consider your answer to that question, or better still, have a discussion with someone near you.

Time now for a learning check.

And it says to identify the statements with the correct four regions or countries that have the largest oil reserves.

So you have four different statements on the screen there.

What you need to do is pause the video here, read through those four statements and select what you think is the correct option.

And the correct option was C, North America, Venezuela, Russia, and the Middle East.

Really well done if you were able to select C as the correct answer.

So what answers did you come up with? So what factors, physical and human factors, do actually affect the distribution of oil reserves? Let's have a look at some of these now.

So with regards to physical or natural factors, we need to be considering the geology of the area as well as the location, as well as accessibility of those oil reserves.

In terms of human factors then, there is something called political stability as well as access to technology.

These are really key human factors.

Now we're gonna spend the next part of the lesson really trying to get to grips with these four different factors that affect the distribution of oil reserves.

So not all countries have oil reserves, as you can see once again on that map in front of you, taken from 2021.

Others though have very large oil reserves.

So why is this distribution so uneven? Oil is formed under very specific geological conditions, as we'll now have a look at.

So what conditions are actually needed for oil to form? Well, this is the sort of sequence that we need to know.

First of all, oil forms from the remains of tiny sea plants and animals that died millions of years ago and sank to the sea floor.

These dead organisms were buried by layers of deposits such as sand and mud.

These layers then stopped the remains from fully decomposing.

Over millions of years, the layers got deeper and deeper and deeper.

Heat between 60 degrees Celsius and 120 degrees Celsius, as well as pressure, slowly turned those remains into oil.

Organic material must be at a depth of between two and four kilometres for this pressure and heat to build.

Oil collects in spaces in soft, porous rock, for example, like sandstone.

A layer of impermeable rock above this permeable rock actually seals that oil in place.

Now some sources of oil can be easier to access and extract than others.

For example, oil found on land is much easier to extract than oil found deep underwater.

So I have a quick question for you, which is: what other factors do you think may affect the accessibility of oil reserves? Now, once again, you may like to pause the video here whilst you considered your answer to that question, or better still, have a discussion with someone near you.

So some areas may actually lack infrastructure, for example, pipelines, roads, or refineries which limits accessibility.

For example, the Trans-Alaska Pipeline system, otherwise known as TAPS or Taps, is an 800-mile $8 billion pipeline transporting crude oil.

Also political instability makes reserves inaccessible or too risky to develop.

Oil wells and refineries are often targeted for attacks during conflicts between countries.

This is something that we've seen time and time again.

We've seen it during the Iraq War, both Gulf War I and the second Gulf War, and most recently in Ukraine.

Time left for a learning check.

And it says true or false: Particular physical factors are needed for oil reserves to form? So please then, pause the video here whilst you consider and then select your answer.

And the correct answer is true.

Now, once again, I'd like you to pause the video here whilst you consider as to why or how or what different physical factors are actually needed for those oil reserves to form.

And the answer is really that ocean conditions are needed to allow for the remains of marine organisms to become trapped under layers of deposits.

Then these layers need to be buried deep enough between two and four kilometres for temperatures to reach between 60 and 100 degrees Celsius.

The oil then needs to be trapped under non-porous rock and collect in porous rock, for example, sandstone.

So you can see there are very specific physical or geological conditions that are needed for oil to form.

So really, really well done if you were able to get those two answers correct.

Now, production of oil, or oil refining as it's commonly known, is also unevenly distributed globally.

Oil refining is closely tied to economic and population centres.

So as a result, significant areas of oil production refinery can be found in the following regions: Central and eastern USA, eastern South America, Europe, and the Middle East, and finally eastern and central China.

The reason for this, as I previously said, is due to the fact that these are areas where there are high numbers of population centres as well as significant economic centres which attract the demand for that oil.

Now interestingly, there is also a slow transition towards oil refining moving from the Western Hemisphere towards the Eastern.

And the map in front of you does a great job in actually illustrating that.

Really pay attention to the dark and light blue circles.

These are showing new refineries or an expansion of current oil refineries.

So what we can see is that clearly, there's many, many, many beginning to open up or expand in the Eastern Hemisphere over towards eastern China and eastern Asia.

Meanwhile, have a look at the pink circles or perhaps even the red and green circles.

We are finding these more in western Europe as well as the Western Hemisphere generally, particularly North America.

What do these denote? Well, these denote conversion, closure or even partial closure.

So we're beginning to see a move of oil refining moving from the west towards the east.

Now as I previously said, some refineries in the USA and in Europe are actually converting from oil to biofuels.

This is all to do with stricter environmental laws which are coming into force in western countries, and that can make refining in the west much more expensive.

Oil refining is expanding in the Middle East and Asia to actually meet their growing energy demand as they begin to industrialise and urbanise and their population continues to grow.

This all consumes more and more oil.

Time once again for a learning check.

And it says to identify two reasons why oil refining is moving towards Asia and the Middle East.

So you can see you've got four different options on the screen there.

What you need to do is pause the video here whilst you read through those options and select what you think are the two correct answers.

And the two correct answers are A: stricter environmental laws in Western countries make refining in the west more expensive and D: to meet the increasing energy demand from economic development in Asia and the Middle East.

Really well done if you were able to select A and D as the correct answers.

We're on now to our two practise tasks for our second learning cycle.

And the first one says to use an atlas and your own knowledge to label the six countries marked as having an oil reserve of more than 10 billion metres cubed.

And the second question says to explain why some countries have large oil reserves and others do not.

So please then pause the video here whilst you attempt these two practise tasks.

Best of luck.

And now for some feedback.

So the first question asks you to use an atlas or your own knowledge to label the six countries marked as having an oil reserve of more than 10 billion metres cubed.

Let's have a look at the correct answers then.

So we've got Canada, Venezuela, we've got Russia in the north of Europe, we've got Iran in the Middle East next to Iraq as well as Saudi Arabia.

Really, really well done if you were able to get those six answers correct.

For the second question, your answer may have included the following: I've said that a modern day location would need to have been an ocean in Earth's history during a time when conditions were so favourable for microorganisms that their remains accumulated on the ocean floor faster than they decayed, then this layer would have to be buried deep enough, between two and four kilometres, for temperatures to reach between 60 and 120 degrees Celsius.

After that, the oil needs to be trapped beneath non-porous rock.

If no location in a country ever had those conditions in the past, that would explain why the country has no oil reserves today.

So really, really well done if you were able to include anything like that in your own answer.

We're on now to our third and final learning cycle.

And this is all about, why is oil consumption actually increasing? Now, what do you think are the causes of increasing oil consumption? On the graph in front of you, you can see how oil consumption has increased massively since 1965 up to 2023.

Now, you may like to pause the video here whilst you consider your own answer to that question, or better still, have a discussion with someone near you.

Well, there are many, many different causes.

Let's have a look at them now.

So the first cause is perhaps population increase.

There is also industrialization, urbanisation, increasing wealth, and finally, increasing access to technology.

Now we're gonna spend a bit of time trying to understand these five different causes and how they're increasing oil consumption.

So a quick learning check.

It says to recall the five main causes of increasing oil consumption.

So please pause the video here whilst you do your best to recall the information from the previous slide to complete this learning check.

And the correct answers were: population increase, industrialization, urbanisation, increasing wealth, and finally increasing access to technology.

Really well done if you were able to recall those five correct answers.

Now the two maps on the screen are really, really interesting.

On the left hand side, we've got Human Development Index as of 2022.

On the right hand side, we've got oil consumption per capita as of 2020.

Now there is a strong relationship between a country's social and economic development and the amount of oil consumed by that country.

Now my question to you is the following: Can you identify relationships that underdeveloped countries, emerging countries, and developed countries have with oil consumption? You may like to pause the video here whilst you study those two maps in front of you to really try to identify that relationship.

So what did you come up with? Let's start by looking at developing countries.

So developing countries in large parts of Central Africa have low oil consumption of between 0.

01 and 0.

1 metres cubed per person.

Their largely agricultural economy, lack of wealth, as well as lack of access to technology and transport all reduces the level of oil consumption per person.

Meanwhile, emerging countries such as Brazil, India and China generally have a mid range oil consumption of between 0.

1 and metre cubed per person.

The reason for this then is because of their rapid industrialization, urbanisation and expanding transportation network, all of which are really highly oil-intensive industries.

And finally developed countries in much of Europe, East Asia, Oceania, as well as North America all have very high oil consumption of around 10 to 100 metres cubed per person.

But why is this? Well, their high levels of wealth allow most people to own vehicles, perhaps even multiple vehicles, travel frequently, go on holiday frequently, and consume a wide range of different goods, which all increases their oil use.

So why does wealth and development increase oil consumption? Well, the first thing then is industrial growth.

Factories require a lot of energy, so industrialization greatly increases oil consumption.

Then there's transportation.

People swap from bicycles to mopeds to cars to multiple cars as economic development increases, which thereby increases the use of fuel.

Then there's technology.

As people's incomes rise, they buy more electrical devices, for example, fridges, air conditioners, laptops, computers, which all use energy.

And finally, urbanisation.

People move to cities with economic development and cities use much more energy per person than rural or countryside areas, for example, on lighting, heating, cooling, transportation services, et cetera.

So you can see how these four different factors all combine to increase oil consumption.

So as a country develops, industrialises and people's wealth increases, so too does oil consumption.

In developed countries, oil use has started to level off or even decrease with investment being made in renewable energy sources as well as energy efficiency technology, as well as in energy conservation.

Time for a learning check.

And the question is, which two of the following help explain why oil consumption increases with economic development? So you can see you've got four different options on the screen there.

What you need to do is pause the video, read through the options, and select what you think are the two correct answers.

And the two correct answers are A: more people can afford private vehicles, and C: increased manufacturing and transport needs.

Really well done if you were able to select A and C as the correct answers.

Our next learning check says true or false: All countries consume oil at the same rate? Now, once again, I'd like you to pause the video here whilst you consider whether that is true or false.

And the answer is false.

Now, once again, I'd like you to pause the video here whilst you consider as to why or how that statement is false.

And the reason it's false is that the amount of oil a country consumes can actually change over time.

As develop and grow, they often use more oil for transport, industry and energy.

However, in some rich countries, oil use can actually begin to decrease as they switch to renewable energy and become much more energy efficient.

So really, really well done if you were able to get those two answers correct.

We're on now to our final two practise tasks for our final learning cycle.

And the first one says to use the two maps to describe the relationship between development and oil consumption.

Be sure to refer to developed, developing and emerging countries, continent names, compass directions, and try to support your answer with relevant data.

The second question says to explain how economic development contributes to rising oil consumption in developing countries.

So please then, pause the video here whilst you attempt these two practise tasks.

Best of luck.

And now for some feedback.

So your answer for the first question may have included the following: Developing countries.

Chad and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, located in Sub-Saharan Africa have low HDI scores, below 0.

5, and low oil consumption per capita, under 0.

1 metres cubed.

Now on to emerging countries.

India and Indonesia, located in South and Southeast Asia, have medium HDI scores between 0.

6 and 0.

7.

And they also have medium oil consumption per capita of around 0.

5 to one metre cubed.

And finally developed countries, for example, the United States, Germany, and Australia, in North America, Western Europe and Oceania, have high HDI scores above 0.

9, and they also have high oil consumption scores per capita of over 10 metres cubed.

And for the second question then, your answer may have included the following: So I've written that, as a country's economy develops, its oil consumption usually increases.

One reason is industrial growth.

More factories are built and these use a lot of energy, often from oil.

Transport also changes as people earn more money, they may move away from using bicycles to motorcycles and then to cars, which increases the use of fuel.

Technology plays a role too as rising incomes from increased economic development mean more people can afford electrical items like fridges and air conditioners that need energy to run, which may come from fossil fuels such as oil.

Finally, urbanisation means more people live in cities where energy use per person is higher because of lighting, heating, transport, and other services, which again may be derived from burning oil.

So really, really well done if you were able to include anything like that in your own answer.

We're on now to our learning summary and what do we need to know from today's lesson? Well, we need to know that global oil consumption is increasing to meet the world's increasing energy demand.

Oil reserves are globally unevenly distributed since access to oil depends on both physical as well as human factors.

And finally, increasing oil consumption is linked to economic development.

As a country grows wealthier, industrialises, and people can afford more technology as well as private transport, oil consumption per person rises.

So really, really well done during today's lesson.

It was a pleasure teaching you and I will see you again on the next lesson.

Goodbye.