Terminology
Oil, petroleum, natural gas, hydrocarbons and crude are terms we commonly hear. If we are going to study
the oil industry, we must first become familiar with the "lingo". Appendix I provides a glossary, but it will
be useful at this point to introduce you to the some of the key terms.
There are many kinds of oils. We have “oils” that are used for cooking and sun tanning. Some of these oils
come from different types of plants (such as vegetable oil) and animals (cod liver oil). The oil we are concerned
with here is derived from rocks within the earth. It is called petroleum, a name taken from the Latin
words meaning "rock oil". Throughout this text when we speak of oil, we will always mean petroleum.
The term hydrocarbons refers to the chemical makeup of petroleum. A detailed discussion of petroleum
chemistry is beyond the scope of this
manual, but it will suffice to say that
petroleum is a compound made up
predominantly of atoms of hydrogen
and carbon; thus the name hydrocarbons.
Hydrocarbons can combine in various
ways to form many different
compounds. They can form solids,
such as the asphalt that is used to
pave roads; liquids such as conventional
liquid petroleum, and gases
such as natural gas (not to be confused
with gasoline). Natural gas is
a mixture of hydrocarbons that are in
a gaseous state at normal temperature
and pressure