Non-metals (carbon)

3. Extraction and transportation of oil products

Required Resources

• Slide 6-8
• Student Worksheet 2-3

Delivery

• Slide 6 demonstrates some of the means by which refined and unrefined oil is transported, Slide 7 provides information on the global oil industry and Slide 8 on UK oil extraction. Ask students to consider the infrastructure and scale of the oil industry. Is it what they thought? How much do they think one barrel of oil currently costs?
• Distribute Student Worksheets 2 and 3. Worksheet 2 is an information sheet, providing background information on the process of fractional distillation.
• Worksheet 3 features a list of possible threats to efficient extraction, some of them seemingly far-fetched. Ask students to rank them in order of which provides the greatest threats (if any) and to provide reasons for their decisions.

Differentiation

Lower Ability:

As well as the economic risk presented by threats to oil extraction and transportation, the planet has periodically faced huge pollution as a result of large-scale oil spills. Ask students to brainstorm the name of any spills they have heard of in recent years and to consider their environmental impact.

Higher Ability:

Invite classroom discussion on why they think some oil-fields have greater value than another. They should consider the size of the reserve, ease of access and the quality of the oil (i.e. the products available post distillation).