Petroleum has brought great benefits to human civilization; quality of life and dynamic prosperity is caused by this precious resource.
It is the lifeline of modern civilization. It is the source of energy for agricultural, industrial and transport sectors and sustains essential industries moving.
Petroleum currently provides 90 per cent of energy used for transportation, and while its benefits are astounding, the use of petroleum-based technologies also has cost (disadvantage).
The environmental impacts associated with extracting and transporting petroleum can affect fragile ecosystems. However, oil companies continue to develop new techniques and recovery methods, which reduce the amount of land affected.
The biggest concern is that the combustion of fossil fuels contributes a variety of emissions to the atmosphere and releases carbon dioxide that causes the greenhouse effect. Therefore, there is considerable interest in reducing our reliance on petroleum-based technologies.
Petroleum is an exhaustible resource and the industry has noticed of this fact. To promote efficient and economic uses of energy, Petroleum Conservation and Research Association (PCRA) has been functioning for last two decades.
PCRA has done enormous work in mass awareness energy conservation in industrial, transport, and household and agriculture sectors through energy audits and studies and by continuously educating the users of petroleum products on importance and urgency of energy conservation. The task is enormous as it includes highly qualified engineers, drivers or automobiles, housewives and farmers.
As we saw in the last paragraphs petroleum is such a useful energy source, unfortunately it is not-sustainable and the day it may end is probable that humans will be prepare; if not humanity will have to get used to the lack of the products of petroleum. It is not only its sustainability, but the reactions in our environment that it is producing.