Characteristics Of The Petroleum Industry

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Petroleum industry is a main energy industry. So, petroleum is vital to many industries, and is of importance to the maintenance of industrial civilization in its current configuration, and thus is a critical concern for many nations. Oil accounts for a large percentage of the world’s energy consumption. Oil and gas drive world economies, their prices can alter the economic prospects of entire countries and a single value fluctuation can have a wide-ranging impact on stock markets worldwide. The petroleum industry includes the global processes of exploration, extraction, refining, transporting (often by oil tankers and pipelines), and marketing petroleum products. The largest volume products of the industry are fuel oil and gasoline (petrol). Petroleum (oil) is also the raw material for many chemical …show more content…

Since the industry is all about dealing with various hydrocarbon products, “hydrocarbon industry” is another name for the industry. Upstream: This sector deals with the first step of the process: getting oil and gas out of the ground. Companies involved in upstream operations search for underground or underwater oil fields, drill exploratory wells and oversee operations to redirect crude oil to the surface. Crude oil from the field reservoir usually has gas, water, and sediment in it. At the other extreme, gas condensate is colorless and will completely evaporate if left uncontained. The specific characteristics of each crude reflects its unique blend of sizes and types of hydrocarbon molecules, with thousands of different compounds in the mixture. This extreme variability is why the material was named “crude”. It is indeed a crude material, being messy, unstable and dangerous to handle essentially unstable in its initial form. Midstream: The midstream sector involves the transportation (by pipeline, rail, oil tanker or truck), storage, and wholesale marketing of crude or refined petroleum

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