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Upstream regards exploration and extraction of crude oil, midstream encompasses transportation and storage of crude, and downstream concerns refining crude oil into various end products. Petroleum is vital to many industries, and is necessary for the maintenance of industrial civilization in its current configuration, making it a critical ...
Although crude petroleum oil has been used for a variety of purposes for thousands of years, the Oil Age is considered to have started in the 1800s with the advance of drilling techniques, as well as the processing of products made use in internal combustion engines. Alternatively, the age of oil can be placed in the first period until the ...
Crude oil, or petroleum, and its refined components, collectively termed petrochemicals, are crucial resources in the modern economy. Crude oil originates from ancient fossilized organic materials , such as zooplankton and algae , which geochemical processes convert into oil. [ 8 ]
In 2018 road transport used 49% of petroleum, aviation 8%, and uses other than energy 17%. [155] Electric vehicles are the main alternative for road transport and biojet for aviation. [156] [157] [158] Single-use plastics have a high carbon footprint and may pollute the sea, but as of 2022 the best alternatives are unclear. [159]
Petroleum products are materials derived from crude oil as it is processed in oil refineries. Unlike petrochemicals, which are a collection of well-defined usually pure organic compounds, petroleum products are complex mixtures. [1] Most petroleum is converted into petroleum products, which include several classes of fuels. [2]
Petroleum refinery in Anacortes, Washington, United States. Petroleum refining processes are the chemical engineering processes and other facilities used in petroleum refineries (also referred to as oil refineries) to transform crude oil into useful products such as liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), gasoline or petrol, kerosene, jet fuel, diesel oil and fuel oils.
The oil and gas industry is usually divided into three major sectors: upstream, midstream, and downstream. The downstream sector is the refining of petroleum crude oil and the processing and purifying of raw natural gas, [1] as well as the marketing and distribution of products derived from crude oil and natural gas.
Humans have used oil shale as a fuel since prehistoric times, since it generally burns without any processing. [33] Around 3000 BC, "rock oil" was used in Mesopotamia for road construction and making architectural adhesives. [34] Britons of the Iron Age used tractable oil shales to fashion cists for burial, [35] or just polish it to create ...