I teach Craft & Design at Secondary, and I'd like to get hold of a small sample (200ml or so) of crude oil; as a teaching aid when talking about plastics, etc. Teacher at my old school had one, and it was useful and a good discussion point.

Can anyone help? Happy to reimburse postage costs.

Ta.

Get some black treacle, thin it down with some water….

It doesn't have to be real does it?

q) What is black and shouts "Knickers! Knickers!"?

a) Crude Oil

q) What is black and shouts "Underwear! Underwear!"?

a) Refined Oil

…I could tell you a joke about oil, but it's a bit crude…

Not sure they go giving it out. You need suitable containers, COSHH etc.

I'd go down the treacle route.

You need suitable containers, COSHH etc.

Darn – never thought of that…

Black treacle, soy sauce, urine to represent stages in refinement!

Is an oil can not a "suitable container" ?

a fine excuse to visit the Gulf of Mexico surely ?

a fine excuse to visit the Gulf of Mexico surely ?

Just don't unplug the hole, you might upset a few people.

I would reckon 90% of people who work in the oil industry have never seen the stuff.

I would email BP Shell etc.. Tell them you want it for classroom education and they may respond then again they may not.

Worth an email.

or

http://pangea-geology.com/

or

http://www.onta.com/

Thanks all; even for the 'crude' jokes!

Will email Pangea, Bruneep – cheers.

I may or may not be able to help. Offshore next Monday, and I'll be taking crude samples as a matter of course. Posting shouldn't be a problem as I'll have all the necessary containers, COSHH forms, etc., but you seriously need to consider if crude is the best thing to be handing round in secondary school. All sorts of nastiness is contained within, not least of all being its carcinogenic properties. There's also a very real danger of flash fires/"explosions" caused by static discharges, and I'd imagine that there is plenty of static build-up when 30-odd kids are all rubbing jumpers trying to see the black stuff.

As mentioned above, it would be much, much easier and safer to use black treacle, soy sauce, etc. to get the effect. Spray some WD40 in it to get the smell.

Also, Shell/BP/whoever might be a bit of a non-starter if you choose to go down that route. A better bet would be to contact some of the oilfield chemical testing companies. Try Intertek, SGS or CoreLab, all in Aberdeen. These will be guaranteed to have some crude knocking about in the lab somewhere.

Ah come on, how much of a laugh will it be to say this is crude oil from the Mexico Burrito oilfield, knowing it's treacle from Sainsburys?

Or that this is crude from the Santa Cruz deposit near the town of Blur, when it's soy sauce?

…the partially refined oil from the Traquair shales in Innerleithen, when it's wee in a jar?

The Flying Ox – thanks for the further ideas!

I'm afraid I confirm that the companies above (I work for one of them) would more than likely not supply you samples for the reasons OX explains. I do have some examples myself of first oils produced but these are all well sealed so would be of little use to you.

Just make up a mix and tell them that the real deal, much easier and safer tbh.

Have you checked with the Chemistry department? We used it for GCSE Chemistry, for fractional distillation.

Of course that was one or two years ago and things might have changed…

[Quote]Have you checked with the Chemistry department? We used it for GCSE Chemistry, for fractional distillation.

That stuff was usualy a mix of relatively pure alkanes and carbon dust, so as to be as safe as possible.

The ususal fractional distilation experiment is usualy alcohol in water with food dye?

I'd go with cheep 20/50 engine oil, ground up charcoal, and about 10%water. Keep it in a jam jar and dont let them smell it (not because its unrealistic, but smelling solvents/hydrocarbons is dangerous).