truTV: Not Reality. Actuality.

Do oil deposits come from dead dinosaurs? Does gasoline cure lice? Can you really strike oil by shooting at possum, a la Jed Clampett? Read on!

Does oil really come from dinosaurs or is that just a myth?

They don’t call it “fossil fuel” for nothing. Plant and animal life from about 300 million years ago was “cooked” beneath the earth’s surface to create oil, natural gas and coal – your basic fossil fuels. While dinosaurs were part of that fossil mix, most oil comes from prehistoric marine plankton and algae. Exxon may have claimed to “put a tiger in your tank,” but it’s more likely part decomposed saber tooth tiger.

On the old “Beverly Hillbillies” show, Jed Clampett struck oil when he
shot a hole in the ground while hunting. Could that really happen?

Probably not. Oil tends to sit in pockets deep below the earth’s surface, though in parts of the world oil used to bubble right up through the ground. Unfortunately most oil that came up on its own has since biodegraded. Nearly all the world’s reserves are trapped deep underground now. The odds of striking oil while possum hunting nowadays are slim to none. But then so are the odds of going possum hunting in the first place.

Is gasoline a good cure for killing lice?

If you lived in the early 1900s, you bet! People would buy little glass jars of gasoline, called Petrol, just for this purpose. Sadly, in addition to causing serious skin rashes and being a fire risk, rubbing gasoline on yourself made getting a date almost impossible.

Where does the name “gasoline” come from?

“Gasoline” derives from the Greek, meaning “freakin’ expensive.” Just kidding. Gasoline was originally a trade name, but it was never registered. Like Xerox or Kleenex it eventually became the generic description.

Once you drill a well, how does oil get up the hole?

Natural gas and water are often trapped in pockets above or below the oil reserves. In both cases, pressure from gas or water force oil to the surface through the newly drilled hole. When these forces are no longer sufficient, pressure has to be pumped into a well, hence those pumps cranking away all over the world. Sure it’s a pain, but so is walking.

Who drilled the first ever oil well?

The Chinese back in 347. They burned oil to evaporate brine which produced salt. The first U.S. oil well was dug in 1859, when Edwin Drake drilled a 69-foot well outside Titusville, PA. It yielded 25 barrels of oil a day, which would have been more than enough to power American cars if there had been any at the time. The first gasoline-powered automobile wasn’t invented until 1870 in Austria.

Who tastes crude oil to determine if it’s sweet, and why would
anyone do such a thing?

As far as we know, no one’s job is to actually swallow the stuff. But crude is defined in many ways beyond the colorful terms “Black Gold” and “Texas Tea.” It is called “sour” when it has a high sulfur content (that rotten egg smell) and needs to be refined more before going to market. Oil that’s high quality to start is called “sweet crude.” Mmm, sweet crude.