TABLE OF CONENTS

Objectives 3
Introduction 3
PETROLEUM 5
COMPOSITION OF OIL BY WEIGHT 7
CHEMISTRY 8
CRUDE OIL 10
UNCONVENTIONAL OIL 11
CRUDE OIL ASSAY 12
HEAVY CRUDE OIL 14
SWEET CRUDE OIL 15
CRUDE OIL INTO FINISHED PRODUCT 16
CRUDE OIL DISTILLATION SET-UP 17
THINGS MADE FROM OIL AND GAS 18
OIL REFINERY 19
MAJOR PRODUCTS 20
FLOW DIAGRAM OF TYPICAL REFINERY 21
THE CRUDE OIL DISTILLATION UNIT 22
SPECIALTY END PRODUCTS 23
SITING/LOCATING OF PETROLEUM REFINIRIES 23
SAFETY AND ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS 24
REFERENCES 25

RESEARCH WORK NO. 1

OIL INDUSTRY

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Research Work No.1: OIL INDUSTRY
OBJECTIVES

1. To be able to learn and familiarize ourselves about the oil industry.

2. To be able to learn the process of crude oil that is turned into finished products.

INTRODUCTION

What is oil? Together with natural gas, it makes up petroleum, which is Latin for "rock oil".
Petroleum is basically a mix of naturally occurring organic compounds from within the earth that
contain primarily hydrogen, carbon and oxygen. When petroleum comes straight out of the
ground as a liquid it is called crude oil if dark and viscous, and condensate if clear and volatile.
When solid it is asphalt, and when semi-solid it is tar. There is also natural gas, which can be
associated with oil or found alone.

Crude oil comes in many forms. Usually it is

black, but green, red or brown oils are not
uncommon. Thin and volatile oils are called
"light", whereas thick and viscous ones are
"heavy". Light oils have an API gravity of 30 to
40 degrees, which means that the density is much
less than 1.0 g/cc. These oils float easily on water.
By contrast, some heavy oils have an API gravity
of less than 12 degrees and are so dense that they
sink, rather than float, in water.

Most oils are mixtures of many different

compounds, most of which are hydrocarbons. There are four main hydrocarbon groups in
petroleum. The saturates are hydrocarbons consisting of straight chains of carbon atoms.
Aromatics are hydrocarbons consisting of rings of carbon. Asphlatenes are complex polycylic
hydrocarbons that contain many complicated carbon rings, and NSO compounds are mostly
nitrogen, sulfur, and oxygen.

In most oils, the saturate fraction is the largest and is made up of two subgroups called paraffins
and isoprenoids. Paraffins are simple straight-chain hydrocarbons, whereas isoprenoids are
hydrocarbon chains with branches. Waxes are long-chain paraffins that are solid at surface
temperatures and may contain as many as 50 carbon atoms. Waxy oils tend to thick and viscous,
whereas aromatic oils tend to be light and volatile.
Petroleum in ancient times was called bitumen, and mankind for centuries was not at all sure
what bitumen was made of or where it came from. Two ideas developed in ancient times to
explain the composition and origin of bitumen. One held that bitumen was inorganic and bore no

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relation to living things, whereas the other theorized that it somehow formed from once-living
plants or animals.

Oil was formed from the remains of animals and plants that lived millions of years ago in a
marine (water) environment before the dinosaurs. Over the years, the remains were covered by
layers of mud. Heat and pressure from these layers helped the remains turn into what we today
call crude oil. The word "petroleum" means "rock oil" or "oil from the earth.

Where does Oil come from?

Crude oil is a smelly, yellow-to-black liquid and is usually found in underground areas called
reservoirs. Scientists and engineers explore a chosen area by studying rock samples from the
earth. Measurements are taken, and, if the site seems promising, drilling begins. Above the
hole, a structure called a 'derrick' is built to house the tools and pipes going into the well. When
finished, the drilled well will bring a steady flow of oil to the surface.

How we get Oil?

Crude oil is a smelly, yellow-to-black liquid and is

usually found in underground areas called
reservoirs. Scientists and engineers explore a chosen
area by studying rock samples from the earth.
Measurements are taken, and, if the site seems
promising, drilling begins. Above the hole, a
structure called a 'derrick' is built to house the tools
and pipes going into the well. When finished, the
drilled well will bring a steady flow of oil to the
surface.

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PETROLEUM

Petroleum is a naturally occurring flammable liquid consisting of a complex mixture

of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights and other liquid organic compounds, that are
found in geologic formations beneath the Earth's surface. The name Petroleum covers the both
naturally occurring unprocessed crude oils and petroleum products that are made up of refined
crude oil. A fossil fuel, it is formed when large quantities of dead organisms,
usually zooplankton and algae, are buried underneath sedimentary rock and undergo intense heat
and pressure.

Petroleum is recovered mostly through oil drilling. This comes after the studies of structural
geology (at the reservoir scale), sedimentary basin analysis, reservoir characterization (mainly in
terms of porosity and permeable structures). It is refined and separated, most easily by boiling
point, into a large number of consumer products, from petrol (or gasoline)
and kerosene to asphalt and chemical reagents used to
make plastics and pharmaceuticals. Petroleum is used in manufacturing a wide variety of
materials, and it is estimated that the world consumes about 88 million barrels each day.
The use of fossil fuels such as petroleum can have a negative impact on Earth's biosphere,
releasing pollutants and greenhouse gases into the air and damaging ecosystems through events
such as oil spills. Concern over the depletion of the earth's finite reserves of oil, and the effect
this would have on a society dependent on it, is a field known as peak oil.

The word "petroleum" comes from Greek: πέτρα (petra) for rock and Greek: ἔλαιον (elaion) for

oil. The term was found (in the spelling "petraoleum") in 10th-century Old English sources. It
was used in the treatise De Natura Fossilium, published in 1546 by the German
mineralogist Georg Bauer, also known as Georgius Agricola. In the 19th century, the term
"petroleum" was frequently used to refer to mineral oils produced by distillation from mined
organic solids such as cannel coal (and later oil shale), and refined oils.

Petroleum includes only crude oil, but in common usage it includes all liquid, gaseous, and
solid hydrocarbons. Under surface pressure and temperature conditions, lighter
hydrocarbons methane, ethane, propane and butane occur as gases, while pentane and heavier
ones are in the form of liquids or solids. However, in an underground oil reservoir the
proportions of gas, liquid, and solid depend on subsurface conditions and on the phase
diagram of the petroleum mixture.

An oil well produces predominantly crude oil, with some natural gas dissolved in it. Because the
pressure is lower at the surface than underground, some of the gas will come out of solution and
be recovered (or burned) as associated gas or solution gas. A gas well produces predominantly

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natural gas. However, because the underground temperature and pressure are higher than at the
surface, the gas may contain heavier hydrocarbons such as pentane, hexane, and heptane in
the gaseous state. At surface conditions these willcondense out of the gas to form natural gas
condensate, often shortened to condensate. Condensate resembles petrol in appearance and is
similar in composition to some volatile light crude oils.

The proportion of light hydrocarbons in the petroleum mixture varies greatly among different oil
fields, ranging from as much as 97 percent by weight in the lighter oils to as little as 50 percent
in the heavier oils and bitumens.

The hydrocarbons in crude oil are mostly alkanes, cycloalkanes and various aromatic

hydrocarbons while the other organic compounds contain nitrogen, oxygen and sulfur, and trace
amounts of metals such as iron, nickel, copper and vanadium. The exact molecular composition
varies widely from formation to formation but the proportion of chemical elements vary over
fairly narrow limits as follows:

COMPOSITION OF OIL BY WEIGHT

Element Percent range

Carbon 83 to 87% Four different types of hydrocarbon

molecules appear in crude oil. The
relative percentage of each varies
Hydrogen 10 to 14% from oil to oil, determining the
properties of each oil.

Nitrogen 0.1 to 2%

Hydrocarbon Average Range

Oxygen 0.05 to 1.5%

Paraffins 30% 15 to 60%

Sulfur 0.05 to 6.0%

Naphthenes 49% 30 to 60%

Metals < 0.1%

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Aromatics 15% 3 to 30%

Asphaltics 6% remainder

Crude oil varies greatly in appearance depending on its composition. It is usually black or dark
brown (although it may be yellowish, reddish, or even greenish). In the reservoir it is usually
found in association with natural gas, which being lighter forms a gas cap over the petroleum,
and saline water which, being heavier than most forms of crude oil, generally sinks beneath it.
Crude oil may also be found in semi-solid form mixed with sand and water, as in the Athabasca
oil sands in Canada, where it is usually referred to as crude bitumen. In Canada, bitumen is
considered a sticky, black, tar-like form of crude oil which is so thick and heavy that it must be
heated or diluted before it will flow. Venezuela also has large amounts of oil in the Orinoco oil
sands, although the hydrocarbons trapped in them are more fluid than in Canada and are usually
calledextra heavy oil. These oil sands resources are called unconventional oil to distinguish them
from oil which can be extracted using traditional oil well methods. Between them, Canada
and Venezuela contain an estimated 3.6 trillion barrels (570×109 m3) of bitumen and extra-heavy
oil, about twice the volume of the world's reserves of conventional oil.
Petroleum is used mostly, by volume, for producing fuel oil and petrol, both important "primary
energy" sources. 84 per cent by volume of the hydrocarbons present in petroleum is converted
into energy-rich fuels (petroleum-based fuels), including petrol, diesel, jet, heating, and other
fuel oils, and liquefied petroleum gas. The lighter grades of crude oil produce the best yields of
these products, but as the world's reserves of light and medium oil are depleted, oil refineries are
increasingly having to process heavy oil and bitumen, and use more complex and expensive
methods to produce the products required. Because heavier crude oils have too much carbon and
not enough hydrogen, these processes generally involve removing carbon from or adding
hydrogen to the molecules, and using fluid catalytic cracking to convert the longer, more
complex molecules in the oil to the shorter, simpler ones in the fuels.
Due to its high energy density, easy transportability and relative abundance, oil 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 pharmaceuticals, solvents, fertilizers, pesticides, and
plastics; the 16 per cent 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. There is also petroleum in oil sands (tar sands). Known oil reserves are
typically estimated at around 190 km3 (1.2 trillion (short scale) barrels) without oil sands,
595 km3 (3.74 trillion barrels) with oil sands. Consumption is currently around 84 million barrels
(13.4×106 m3) per day, or 4.9 km3 per year. Which in turn yields a remaining oil supply of only
about 120 years, if current demand remain static.

CHEMISTRY

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Petroleum is a mixture of a very large number of different hydrocarbons; the most commonly
found molecules are alkanes (linear or branched), cycloalkanes, aromatic hydrocarbons, or more
complicated chemicals like asphaltenes. Each petroleum variety has a unique mix ofmolecules,
which define its physical and chemical properties, like color and viscosity.
The alkanes, also known as paraffins, are saturated hydrocarbons with straight or branched
chains which contain only carbon and hydrogen and have the general formula CnH2n+2. They
generally have from 5 to 40 carbon atoms per molecule, although trace amounts of shorter or
longer molecules may be present in the mixture.
The alkanes from pentane (C5H12) to octane (C8H18) are refined into petrol, the ones
fromnonane (C9H20) to hexadecane (C16H34) into diesel fuel, kerosene and jet fuel. Alkanes with
more than 16 carbon atoms can be refined into fuel oil and lubricating oil. At the heavier end of
the range, paraffin wax is an alkane with approximately 25 carbon atoms, while asphalt has 35
and up, although these are usually cracked by modern refineries into more valuable products.
The shortest molecules, those with four or fewer carbon atoms, are in a gaseous state at room
temperature. They are the petroleum gases. Depending on demand and the cost of recovery, these
gases are either flared off, sold as liquified petroleum gasunder pressure, or used to power the
refinery's own burners. During the winter, butane (C4H10), is blended into the petrol pool at high
rates, because its high vapor pressure assists with cold starts. Liquified under pressure slightly
above atmospheric, it is best known for powering cigarette lighters, but it is also a main fuel
source for many developing countries. Propane can be liquified under modest pressure, and is
consumed for just about every application relying on petroleum for energy, from cooking to
heating to transportation.
The cycloalkanes, also known as naphthenes, are saturated hydrocarbons which have one or
more carbon rings to which hydrogen atoms are attached according to the formula C nH2n.
Cycloalkanes have similar properties to alkanes but have higher boiling points.
The aromatic hydrocarbons are unsaturated hydrocarbons which have one or more planar six-
carbon rings called benzene rings, to which hydrogen atoms are attached with the formula CnHn.
They tend to burn with a sooty flame, and many have a sweet aroma. Some are carcinogenic.
These different molecules are separated by fractional distillation at an oil refinery to produce
petrol, jet fuel, kerosene, and other hydrocarbons. For example, 2,2,4-
trimethylpentane (isooctane), widely used in petrol, has a chemical formula of C8H18 and it reacts
with oxygen exothermically:

2 C8H18(l) + 25 O2(g) → 16 CO2(g) + 18 H2O(g) (ΔH = −10.86 MJ/mol of octane)

The amount of various molecules in an oil sample can be determined in laboratory. The
molecules are typically extracted in a solvent, then separated in a gas chromatograph, and
finally determined with a suitable detector, such as a flame ionization detector or a mass
spectrometer. Due to the large number of co-eluted hydrocarbons within oil, many cannot be

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Research Work No.1: OIL INDUSTRY
 resolved by traditional gas chromatography and typically appear as a hump in the
chromatogram. This unresolved complex mixture (UCM) of hydrocarbons is particularly
apparent when analysing weathered oils and extracts from tissues of organisms exposed to
oil.
Incomplete combustion of petroleum or petrol results in production of toxic byproducts. Too
little oxygen results in carbon monoxide. Due to the high temperatures and high pressures
involved, exhaust gases from petrol combustion in car engines usually include nitrogen
oxides which are responsible for creation of photochemical smog.

CRUDE OIL

Crude oil is a liquid found naturally in rock, containing mostly complex hydrocarbons, with
some additional organic material. It is the major fuel used on the planet, and is used in the
production of many synthetic materials like plastics as well.

Crude oil can come in many different weights and colors, and can differ greatly in its
composition. As little as half of the composition of heavy oils can be made up of hydrocarbons,
while the lightest oils can be up to 97% hydrocarbons. There are four main hydrocarbons found
in crude oil, in varying amounts depending on the oil. Around half of the hydrocarbons in most
crude oil are naphthenes, one-third are paraffins, one-sixth are aromatics, and the rest are
asphaltics. The color can range from pure black or dark brown to greenish or yellowish,
depending on the composition.

Crude oil is considered light if the level of hydrocarbons relative to organics and metals is high,
making its density low, and it is considered heavy if the level of hydrocarbons relative to
organics and metals is low, making its density as high. Additionally, crude oil is classified as
sweet if it has very little sulfur in it, and is classified as sour if it has a great deal of sulfur in it.
So a crude oil will usually be called something like a sweet, light oil, or a sour, heavy oil.
Sweeter oils are more valuable than sour oils, because most countries have sulfur regulations for
environmental reasons, and sweet oils require less treatment to remove the sulfur. Light oils are
more valuable than heavy oils, because more gasoline can be created from a smaller amount.

Different regions on earth tend to have different types of oil, so crude oil is often classified based
on where it comes from. Certain regions will act as a sample of a broader region, since they are
seen as relatively representative of that broad region. For example, Dubai-Oman oil is a sour
crude oil, and is used to benchmark most sour crude from the Middle East; West Texas
Intermediate is a sweet, light oil; and the OPEC Reference Basket is a composite oil sample that
averages oils from all over the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.

While conventional crude oil is currently the major source of petroleum on the planet, it actually
makes up a minority of crude oil currently in reserve. A bit less than one-third of the crude oil
known on the planet is in conventional form. Another one-sixth is heavy oil, and a quarter is

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extra-heavy oil. Another one-third, roughly equal to the amount of conventional oil, is in the
form of oil sands, or crude bitumen. This is not a liquid form of crude oil, but is mixed with sand
into a somewhat solid form. Huge reserves of bitumen can be found in Venezuela and Canada,
which also contain large amount of extra-heavy oil, making the two countries’ reserves equal to
about twice the known reserves of conventional oil.

UNCONVENTIONAL OIL

Unconventional oil is oil obtained in a manner that differs from the usual drilling method. Many
unconventional oils exist, including oil sand and shale rock, and the term applies more to how
the oil is extracted than to the oil itself. In terms of efficiency, yield and environmental impact,
unconventional oil is not as good as conventional oil. Conventional oil extraction is turning up
less and less oil, though, so many oil drilling companies are looking into alternative ways to get
oil.

Kerogen is a material that originates from either plants or animals and has been bacterially
altered. Unlike liquid petroleum, which has gone through extreme heat to become conventional
oil, kerogen has not gone through this process. By using a heating process, kerogen is converted
into an oil-like substance that can be used like regular petroleum. Shale rock, a type of
sedimentary rock, contains high amounts of kerogen and is one method of obtaining
unconventional oil commonly called shale oil.

Bitumen, more often called oil sand because of its texture, looks much like oil or tar but is
neither. It is a semisolid material that contains degraded oil and is composed heavily of sand and
clay particles. This method yields little unconventional oil, because 2 tons (1,814 kilograms) are
needed for one barrel of oil. The most common way of extracting bitumen is by injecting steam
into oil sand, which reduces the viscosity of the bitumen and makes it easier to collect.
Heavy oil is unconventional oil that is similar to conventional oil but much heavier. This is
because the lighter hydrocarbons found in conventional oil have degraded, leaving only a heavy
substance. To extract heavy oil, dilutants are added to reduce the overall viscosity so the heavy
oil can be pumped.

Thermal depolymerization (TDP) is a method that emulates nature and uses

differentfeedstock for unconventional oil. Feedstocks, such as petroleum coke or waste deposits,
are added to the TDP unit. By using extreme heat and pressure, the feedstock is processed to
create oil. The oil yield differs depending on the feedstock.

While unconventional oil offers different methods for getting oil, it does have environmental
hazards. Most of the materials used in unconventional oil drilling and extracting have high
amounts of toxic substances, such as sulfur. The areas from where unconventional oils come also
are generally more hazardous for workers.

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CRUDE OIL ASSAY

A crude oil assay is an evaluation of the properties of a sample of crude oil for the benefit of
refiners, traders, and other interested parties. All crude oils are not created equally, and assay
results can determine the value of oil in addition to helping with plans for refining and working
the oil to break it down into usable components. This can be performed at the laboratory of an oil
company or by a third party organization, depending on who orders the assay and what the
precise need might be.

In a crude oil assay, chemists specializing in petroleum products subject the sample to a number
of tests. They determine the composition of the oil, identifying any impurities present and their
concentrations. The chemists can also distill the oil to find out more about what kinds of usable
components it will yield. This process can be destructive and usually requires several samples to
make it possible to run a variety of tests. Tests may be repeated if there are any questions.

The crude oil assay looks at qualities of the oil when it is hot and cold, and also explores the
quality of finished products like gasoline. All of this information determines the final rating of
the oil, such as light sweet crude for particularly high quality oils. The better the rating, the more
valuable the oil, and the more products it will be possible to make from it. For oil and gas
exploration, oil assays are critical for determining where and when to drill, and for evaluating the
value of a prospective investment.

Traders use the crude oil assay to find out how much to ask or pay for various oil products, while
refineries rely on the assay to develop a plan for processing the oil. The goal is to extract as
many useful components as possible through processes like distillation and hydrocarbon
cracking. Knowing the properties of the oil ahead of time will allow the refineryto determine
how it should handle the oil on delivery. It can also be critical for maintaining refinery statistics
on the type of oil it processes and the average yields.

Government agencies can also use assays, where the goal is usually to determine the value of oil
reserves. In addition to being useful for assessing the value of oil deposits held by the
government, a crude oil assay can also be a valuable forensic tool. Oil contains markers that
provide clues into its origins, making it possible to track the origins of oil no matter where it
turns up. This can be important for environmental investigations or situations where
governments want to avoid buying oil from embargoed or restricted regions.

Light crude oil is a type of naturally occurring hydrocarbon that is characterized as having low
specific gravity, low viscosity and high American Petroleum Institute (API) gravity. This liquid
petroleum substance also has a relatively low density compared with other crude oils, and it
contains high percentages of compounds that can be refined into gasoline and fuel oil. Light
crude oil, because of its composition, tends to be worth more money than heavy crude. There are
several standards that can be used to define what exactly constitutes light crude oil, and several
benchmarks are used as well. West Texas Intermediate (WTI), Brent Crude and Dubai Crude are
all generally referred to as light crude, despite having somewhat different API gravity levels.

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Crude oil is a type of liquid petroleum that typically is recovered through drilling activities.
There are two main categories that can be used to differentiate crude oils: weight and sulfur
content. The lack of sulfur in crude oil typically results in it being referred to as "sweet," and
crude that has a lot of sulfur in it might be called "sour." Oil also can be heavy or light based on
its physical properties. Viscosity and specific gravity are two values that can determine whether
it is heavy or light, although API gravity is a measurement that applies specifically to oil.

Whether crude oil is considered light can also depend on the part of the world where it is
produced. The benchmark commonly used for light crude oil in the United States is WTI, with an
API of 39.6. Brent Crude that is produced in northern Europe and Dubai Crude from the Persian
Gulf are both considered light even though they each have a lower API gravity than WTI. A
lower API corresponds with heavier oil, so Dubai Crude is actually too heavy at 31 API to be
referred to as light if it were produced in the U.S. or Europe instead of the Persian Gulf.

The most valuable type of crude available on commodities markets typically is light and usually
sweet. The high API gravity and lack of sulfur in this kind of oil make it easier to refine than
heavier oils and mean that larger percentages of gasoline and fuel oil can be recovered. Gasoline
and diesel fuel are some of the most desired products that are created in the refining process, so
light crude oil typically yields more profitable results than other types of crude.

HEAVY CRUDE OIL

Crude oil that does not easily flow at room temperature is called heavy crude oil. This differs
from light crude oil, which flows freely at the same temperatures because of its lower density.
Crude oil with an American Petroleum Institute gravity of less than 20 degrees is classified as
either heavy crude oil or extra heavy crude oil. It is speculated that the total amount of heavy
crude oil worldwide is more than double that of the more traditionally used light crude oil.
Deposits of heavy crude oil are often found near tar sands, or oil sands, which are mix of sand,
clay, water and extremely dense petroleum. Occasionally, the term "bitumen," which is the
sticky, semi-solid, tar-like form of petroleum found in tar sands, will be used interchangeably
with the extra heavy crude oil found in such deposits. Some geologists contend that bitumen is
merely a form of extra heavy crude oil that is so dense that it does not flow at all at room
temperature.
Transporting and refining heavy crude oil poses greater environmental risks than transporting
and refining the more traditional light crude oil. Heavy oil contains more carbon, along with
many other impurities, so it releases more carbon dioxide during production and during use,
which can negatively affect the Earth's ozone layer. The production process of heavy oil can
generate as much as three times the amount of carbon dioxide that light oil production generates.

Economically, heavy crude oil is often priced lower than light crude oil because it is considered
more difficult and more expensive to work with. Although heavy oil can often be found at far
shallower depths than light oil — a trait that can significantly reduce the cost of extraction — the
production of heavy crude oil presents additional expenses. Many of the traditional methods in

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place for the transportation and extraction of light crude oil prove ineffective when dealing with
the increased density of heavy crude, necessitating expensive infrastructure alterations.

As the easily accessible deposits of light crude oil diminish, the production of heavy oil has
become more common. Although it is found in more than 30 countries, the largest deposits can
be found in Venezuela near the Orinoco River. These deposits are estimated to hold more than
500 billion barrels of oil, making them the largest deposits of recoverable oil in the world.

SWEET CRUDE OIL

Crude oil is a liquid mixture of hydrocarbons and various other chemical compounds. This
mixture of hydrocarbons is also commonly known as petroleum, and is referred to as sweet when
it has a low sulfur content. Petroleum can have a wide variety of different physical makeups, but
the lack of sulfur results in it having a somewhat sweet taste. This type of petroleum is typically
used to make gasoline and diesel, since it tends to yield high quantities of naptha and fuel
oil during refinement. Sweet crude oil originates from many different places around the world,
including the United States, the North Sea and North Africa.

There are two main factors typically used to differentiate one type of crude oil from another. The
first is whether it is heavy or light, and refers to the specific gravity of the petroleum. Lighter oil
is easier to pump out of the ground and transport, so it typically costs more money to bring heavy
crude to market. The other descriptor is based on the sulfur content of the crude, and petroleum
that has a sulfur content of greater than 0.5% is typically referred to as sour. Sweet crude oil
possesses sulfur content lower than 0.5% and typically also has a pleasant smell and sweet taste.

Sweet crude oil is usually considered to be more desirable than sour crude, largely due to the
chemical makeup traditionally associated with this type of oil. Large quantities of the
hydrocarbons that are necessary for the production of gasoline and diesel fuel are typically
present in sweet crude. This means that the fractional distillation of sweet crude tends to result in
larger amounts of naptha, fuel oil and kerosene than are typically recovered from sour crude.
Naptha is a feedstock that can be used to make high octane gasoline, while diesel is just one of
the many grades of fuel oil.

Many different areas around the world produce sweet crude oil. The United States extracts light,
sweet crude from areas such as West Texas, Louisiana and Appalachia, and South America has
reserves in the Guyana-Suriname Basin and elsewhere. Some of the largest sweet crude reserves
in the world are in northern Africa, particularly Libya. The North Sea between the United
Kingdom and continental Europe also contains many wells that draw sweet crude. A number of
other areas around the world also have sweet crude oil reserves, including the Indian
subcontinent, many other Asian countries, and even areas in Oceania such as Australia and New
Zealand.

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HOW IS CRUDE OIL TURNED INTO FINISH PRODUCTS?

Crude oil is often a dark, sticky liquid that cannot be used without changing it. The first part of
refining crude oil is to heat it until it boils. The boiling liquid is separated into different liquids
and gases in a distillation column. These liquids are used to make petrol, paraffin, diesel fuel etc.

Crude oil is a mixture of different chemical called hydrocarbons. The boiling oil turns into a
mixture of gases in the column. The gases flow up the column which is hottest at the bottom and
cooler at the top. The gases cool down as they go up the column until they condense (turn back
into liquid again). The separated liquids and gases, after cleaning and further processing, are
used to make many products.

Liquids from refining oil still have to be changed to make them more useful. Sometimes it's to
make them clean enough to be used. Sometimes it's to turn some of the unwanted liquids into
things people want to buy.

The heavier liquids are in less demand from customers so are turned into lighter products that are
in demand. One of the processes is called catalytic cracking. It breaks down some of the heavy
liquids from the distillation column.

The heavy liquids are changed into simple and more useful liquids and gases. Cracking is just
one of many chemical changes in an oil refinery.

CRUDE OIL DISTILLATION SET UP

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 Crude oil is separated into fractions by fractional distillation. The fractions at the top of the
fractionating column have lower boiling points than the fractions at the bottom. The heavy bottom
fractions are often cracked into lighter, more useful products. All of the fractions are processed further in
other refining units.

THINGS MADE FROM OIL AND GAS

In an oil refinery and in a chemical works, crude oil and gas are turned into
hundreds of useful products.

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Research Work No.1: OIL INDUSTRY
OIL REFINERY

An oil refinery or petroleum refinery is an industrial process plant where crude oil is processed

and refined into more useful products such as petroleum naphtha, gasoline, diesel fuel, asphalt

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Research Work No.1: OIL INDUSTRY
base, heating oil, kerosene, and liquefied petroleum gas. Oil refineries are typically large,
sprawling industrial complexes with extensive piping running throughout, carrying streams
of fluids between large chemical processing units. In many ways, oil refineries use much of the
technology of, and can be thought of, as types of chemical plants. The crude oil feedstock has
typically been processed by an oil production plant. There is usually an oil depot (tank farm) at
or near an oil refinery for the storage of incoming crude oil feedstock as well as bulk liquid
products.
An oil refinery is considered an essential part of the downstream side of the petroleum industry.

Raw or unprocessed crude oil is not generally useful in industrial applications, although "light,
sweet" (low viscosity, low sulfur) crude oil has been used directly as a burner fuel for steam
vessel propulsion. The lighter elements, however, form explosive vapors in the fuel tanks and are
therefore hazardous, especially in warships. Instead, the hundreds of different hydrocarbon
molecules in crude oil are separated in a refinery into components which can be used
as fuels, lubricants, and as feedstock in petrochemical processes that manufacture such products
as plastics, detergents, solvents, elastomers and fibers such as nylon and polyesters.
Petroleum fossil fuels are burned in internal combustion engines to provide power for ships,
automobiles, aircraft engines, lawn mowers, chainsaws, and other machines. Different boiling
points allow the hydrocarbons to be separated by distillation. Since the lighter liquid products are
in great demand for use in internal combustion engines, a modern refinery will convert
heavy hydrocarbons and lighter gaseous elements into these higher value products.
Oil can be used in a variety of ways because it contains hydrocarbons of varying molecular
masses, forms and lengths such
as paraffins,aromatics, naphthenes (or cycloalkanes),alkenes, dienes, and alkynes. While the
molecules in crude oil include different atoms such as sulfur and nitrogen, the hydrocarbons are
the most common form of molecules, which are molecules of varying lengths and complexity
made of hydrogen and carbon atoms, and a small number of oxygen atoms. The differences in
the structure of these molecules account for their varying physical and chemical properties, and it
is this variety that makes crude oil useful in a broad range of applications.
Once separated and purified of any contaminants and impurities, the fuel or lubricant can be sold
without further processing. Smaller molecules such as isobutane and propylene or butylenes can
be recombined to meet specific octane requirements by processes such as alkylation, or less
commonly, dimerization. Octane grade of gasoline can also be improved by catalytic reforming,
which involves removing hydrogen from hydrocarbons producing compounds with higher octane
ratings such as aromatics. Intermediate products such as gasoils can even be reprocessed to break
a heavy, long-chained oil into a lighter short-chained one, by various forms of cracking such
as fluid catalytic cracking, thermal cracking, and hydrocracking. The final step in gasoline
production is the blending of fuels with different octane ratings, vapor pressures, and other
properties to meet product specifications.
Oil refineries are large scale plants, processing about a hundred thousand to several hundred
thousand barrels of crude oil a day. Because of the high capacity, many of the units
operate continuously, as opposed to processing in batches, at steady state or nearly steady state
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for months to years. The high capacity also makes process optimization and advanced process
control very desirable.

MAJOR PRODUCTS

Petroleum products are usually grouped into three categories: light distillates (LPG, gasoline,
naphtha), middle distillates (kerosene, diesel), heavy distillates and residuum (heavy fuel oil,
lubricating oils, wax, asphalt). This classification is based on the way crude oil is distilled and
separated into fractions (called distillates and residuum) as in the above drawing.[2]

 Liquified petroleum gas (LPG)

 Gasoline (also known as petrol)
 Naphtha
 Kerosene and related jet aircraft fuels
 Diesel fuel
 Fuel oils
 Lubricating oils
 Paraffin wax
 Asphalt and tar
 Petroleum coke
 Sulfur
Oil refineries also produce various intermediate products such as hydrogen, light
hydrocarbons, reformate and pyrolysis gasoline. These are not usually transported but instead are
blended or processed further on-site. Chemical plants are thus often adjacent to oil refineries. For
example, light hydrocarbons are steam-cracked in an ethylene plant, and the produced ethylene is
polymerized to produce polyethene.

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FLOW DIAGRAM OF TYPICAL REFINERY
The image below is a schematic flow diagram of a typical oil refinery that depicts the
various unit processes and the flow of intermediate product streams that occurs between the inlet
crude oil feedstock and the final end products. The diagram depicts only one of the literally
hundreds of different oil refinery configurations. The diagram also does not include any of the
usual refinery
facilities providing
utilities such as
steam, cooling water,
and electric power as
well as storage tanks
for crude oil
feedstock and for
intermediate products
and end products

Schematic flow
diagram of a typical
oil refinery

THE CRUDE
OIL
DISTILLATION
UNIT

The crude oil

distillation unit
(CDU) is the first processing unit in virtually all petroleum refineries. The CDU distills the
incoming crude oil into various fractions of different boiling ranges, each of which are then
processed further in the other refinery processing units. The CDU is often referred to as
the atmospheric distillation unit because it operates at slightly above atmospheric pressure.

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Research Work No.1: OIL INDUSTRY
Below is a schematic flow diagram of a typical crude oil distillation unit. The incoming crude oil
is preheated by exchanging heat with some of the hot, distilled fractions and other streams. It is
then desalted to remove inorganic salts (primarily sodium chloride).
Following the desalter, the crude oil is further heated by exchanging heat with some of the hot,
distilled fractions and other streams. It is then heated in a fuel-fired furnace (fired heater) to a
temperature of about 398 °C and routed into the bottom of the distillation unit.
The cooling and condensing of the distillation tower overhead is provided partially by
exchanging heat with the incoming crude oil and partially by either an air-cooled or water-cooled
condenser. Additional heat is removed from the distillation column by a pump around system as
shown in the diagram below.
As shown in the flow diagram, the overhead distillate fraction from the distillation column is
naphtha. The fractions removed from the side of the distillation column at various points
between the column top and bottoms are called sidecuts. Each of the sidecuts (i.e., the kerosene,
light gas oil and heavy gas oil) is cooled by exchanging heat with the incoming crude oil. All of
the fractions (i.e., the overhead
naphtha, the sidecuts and the
bottom residue) are sent to
intermediate storage tanks before
being processed further.

Schematic flow diagram of a

typical crude oil distillation unit as
used in petroleum crude oil
refineries.

SPECIALTY END
PRODUCTS

These require blending various

feed stocks, mixing appropriate additives, providing short term storage, and preparation for bulk
loading to trucks, barges, product ships, and railcars:

 Gaseous fuels such as propane, stored and shipped in liquid form under pressure in
specialized railcars to distributors.
 Lubricants (produces light machine oils, motor oils, and greases,
adding viscosity stabilizers as required), usually shipped in bulk to an offsite packaging
plant.

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 Wax (paraffin), used in the packaging of frozen foods, among others. May be shipped in
bulk to a site to prepare as packaged blocks.
 Sulfur (or sulfuric acid), byproducts of sulfur removal from petroleum which may have
up to a couple percent sulfur as organic sulfur-containing compounds. Sulfur and sulfuric
acid are useful industrial materials. Sulfuric acid is usually prepared and shipped as the acid
precursor oleum.
 Bulk tar shipping for offsite unit packaging for use in tar-and-gravel roofing.
 Asphalt unit. Prepares bulk asphalt for shipment.
 Petroleum coke, used in specialty carbon products or as solid fuel.
 Petrochemicals or petrochemical feed stocks, which are often sent to petrochemical
plants for further processing in a variety of ways. The petrochemicals may be olefins or their
precursors, or various types of aromatic petrochemicals.

SITING/LOCATING OF PETROLEUM REFINERIES

A party searching for a site to construct a refinery or a chemical plant needs to consider the
following issues:

 The site has to be reasonably far from residential areas.

 Infrastructure should be available for supply of raw materials and shipment of products to
markets.

 Energy to operate the plant should be available.

 Facilities should be available for waste disposal.

Refineries which use a large amount of steam and cooling water need to have an abundant source
of water. Oil refineries therefore are often located nearby navigable rivers or on a sea shore,
nearby a port. Such location also gives access to transportation by river or by sea. The
advantages of transporting crude oil by pipeline are evident, and oil companies often transport a
large volume of fuel to distribution terminals by pipeline. Pipeline may not be practical for
products with small output, and rail cars, road tankers, and barges are used.
Petrochemical plants and solvent manufacturing (fine fractionating) plants need spaces for
further processing of a large volume of refinery products for further processing, or to mix
chemical additives with a product at source rather than at blending terminals.

SAFETY AND ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS

The refining process releases a number of different chemicals into the atmosphere and a

notable odor normally accompanies the presence of a refinery. Aside from air pollution impacts

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there are also wastewater concerns,[3] risks of industrial accidents such as fire and explosion,
and noise health effects due to industrial noise.
Many governments worldwide have mandated restrictions on contaminants that refineries
release, and most refineries have installed the equipment needed to comply with the requirements
of the pertinent environmental protection regulatory agencies. In the United States, there is
strong pressure to prevent the development of new refineries, and no major refinery has been
built in the country since Marathon's Garyville, Louisiana facility in 1976. However, many
existing refineries have been expanded during that time. Environmental restrictions and pressure
to prevent construction of new refineries may have also contributed to rising fuel prices in the
United States.[8]Additionally, many refineries (over 100 since the 1980s) have closed due to
obsolescence and/or merger activity within the industry itself.
Environmental and safety concerns mean that oil refineries are sometimes located some distance
away from major urban areas. Nevertheless, there are many instances where refinery operations
are close to populated areas and pose health risks such as in the Campo de Gibraltar, a CEPSA
refinery near the towns of Gibraltar, Algeciras, La Linea, San Roque and Los Barrios with a
combined population of over 300,000 residents within a 5-mile (8.0 km) radius and the CEPSA
refinery in Santa Cruz on the island of Tenerife, Spain which is sited in a densely populated city.

REFERENCES

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petroleum

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petroleum_industry

http://www.world-petroleum.org/index.php?/Education/how-is-crude-oil-
turned-into-finished-products.html

http://www.kids.esdb.bg/oil.html

http://www.sjvgeology.org/oil/oil.html

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