Crude Oil

You have probably heard the term crude oil before, but exactly what is crude oil? Crude oil is a naturally occurring flammable liquid formed in rocks from prehistoric materials. The conditions needed to create crude oil are quite specific and complex, and modern innovation has developed various techniques for extracting crude oil.

It is important to note that crude oil must be refined before it can be used in modern applications, and the quality of the crude oil determines what its uses will be. Crude oil is often classified by the location from which it is mined, and examples such as West Texas Intermediate, Brent Blend and Dubai-Oman have become benchmarks in the industry.

The amount of crude oil that becomes petrol for our cars and other combustion-related machinery depends on both the quality of the crude oil and the refining process. However, generally just under half a barrel becomes petrol and the remainder is broken up into diesel, jet fuel, LPG, and many other products ranging from plastic to asphalt.

For more information on crude oil please visit our crude oil price page.