- Petroleum or crude oil is a naturally occurring liquid found in formations in the Earth consisting of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons (mostly alkanes) of various lengths. The approximate length range is C5H12 to C18H38. Any shorter hydrocarbons are considered natural gas or natural gas liquids, while longer hydrocarbon chains are more solid, and the longest chains are coal.
- In its naturally occurring form, it may contain other nonmetallic elements such as sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. It is usually black or dark brown but varies greatly in appearance, depending on its composition. Crude oil may also be found in semi-solid form mixed with sand, as in the Athabasca oil sands in Canada, where it may be referred to as crude bitumen.
- Petroleum is used mostly, by volume, for producing fuel oil and gasoline (petrol), both important "primary energy" sources. 84% (37 of 42 gallons in a typical barrel) of the hydrocarbons present in petroleum is converted into energy-rich fuels , including gasoline, diesel, jet, heating, and other fuel oils, and liquefied petroleum gas.
- Due to its high energy density, easy transportability and relative abundance, it has become the world's most important source of energy since the mid-1950s. Petroleum is also the raw material for many chemical products, including solvents, fertilizers, pesticides, and plastics; the 16% not used for energy production is converted into these other materials.
- Petroleum is found in porous rock formations in the upper strata of some areas of the Earth's crust. Known reserves of petroleum are typically estimated at around 1.2 trillion barrels with at least one estimate as high as 3.74 trillion barrels. Consumption is currently around 84 million barrels per day, or 4.9 trillion liters per year. Because of reservoir engineering difficulties, recoverable oil reserves are significantly less than total oil-in-place. At current consumption levels, current known reserves would be gone in about 32 years, around 2039. However, this ignores any new discoveries, changes in demand, better technology, population growth, industrialization of third world countries, and other factors.
- The most common method of obtaining petroleum is extracting it from oil wells found in oil fields. Primary recovery methods are used to extract oil that is brought to the surface by underground pressure, and can generally recover about 20% of the oil present. After the oil pressure has depleted to the point that the oil is no longer brought to the surface, secondary recovery methods draw another 5 to 10% of the oil in the well to the surface. Finally, when secondary oil recovery methods are no longer viable, tertiary recovery methods reduce the viscosity of the oil in order to bring more to the surface.
- The chemical structure of petroleum is composed of hydrocarbon chains of different lengths. Because of this, petroleum may be taken to oil refineries and the hydrocarbon chemicals separated by distillation and treated by other chemical processes, to be used for a variety of purposes.
- A recent low point was reached in January 1999, after increased oil production from Iraq coincided with the Asian financial crisis, which reduced demand. The prices then rapidly increased, more than doubling by September 2000, then fell until the end of 2001 before steadily increasing, reaching US $40 to US $50 per barrel by Septembers 2004.In October 2004, light crude futures contracts on the NYMEX for November delivery exceeded US $53 per barrel and for December delivery exceeded US $55 per barrel. Crude oil prices surged to a record high above $60 a barrel in June 2005, sustaining a rally built on strong demand for gasoline and diesel and on concerns about refiners' ability to keep up. This trend continued into early August 2005, as NYMEX crude oil futures contracts surged past the $65 mark as consumers kept up the demand for gasoline despite its high price.
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Refining Process - Oil refinery
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Company Profiles - BP p.l.c.
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- Global Companies LLC
- Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation Ltd.
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Consultants - Experts in petroleum
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- Ensys Energy
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Plants and Project - Hydra-cell Diaphragm pump products
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Material Safety Data Sheet - Oz-BugZz8 pesticide & hydrocarbon degraders
- Petroleum, solvent-refined heavy paraffinic
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- Thomas HDMO 40
- Petroleum ether
- CITGO Lubricants MSDS
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Products - List 1 of petroleum products
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Patent - Partial oxidation of petroleum coke
- Conversion of petroleum residua to methane
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- Recovery of petroleum
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- Petroleum stream analyzer
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- Treatment of waste petroleum
- Process for the hydroisomerization of petroleum waxes
| Technology - Hybrids separations/Distillation technology
- Uses of stable isotopes in petroleum
- Energy bandwidth for petroleum refining processes
- Photonics technologies
- Integrated control and asset management of petroleum production facilities
- Petroleum refining technologies
Applications - Everyday uses of oil
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Market - Cold cracking of petroleum crude oil
- Our century of fossil fuel energy:1950-2050
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Report - ARRC annual report
- Crude oil report
- MRPL annual report
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- Louisiana crude oil refinery survey report
- Petroleum report-Indonesia
- Engineers India appointed HPCL project consultant
- This week in petroleum-May 31,2007
Manufacturers and Suppliers - Petroleum suppliers
- United Arab Emirates suppliers of petroleum
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- Petroleum products Inc.
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- Petroleum oil suppliers directory
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Buyers - Buying leads of petroleum
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Equipment Suppliers - ALLSTAR Petroleum Equipment
- Challenger Process Systems Co.
- Kerui Group
- Manufacturers and exporters of petroleum equipments
- McKinney Petroleum Equipment
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Safety and Guides - Safety guidelines for petroleum-based polymers manufacturing
- Safety guidelines for petroleum-based organic chemicals manufacturing
- List of IADC contractor members
- Technology roadmap for the petroleum industry
- The need of petroleum
- Emission estimation technique manual for petroleum refining
- Petroleum production engineering links
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