Oil and Gas

Oil and gas industry

The petroleum industry, sometimes known as the oil patch, encompasses the global processes of petroleum product exploration, extraction, refining, transportation (typically via oil tankers and pipelines), and marketing. Petroleum is a liquid that forms naturally in rock formations. It's made up of a complicated mix of hydrocarbons with different molecular weights, as well as other chemical molecules. Oil is thought to be created mostly from the carbon-rich remains of ancient plankton that have been exposed to heat and pressure in the Earth's crust for hundreds of millions of years.