Petroleum Technology

The use of petroleum and the technologies that they require is vital to the ongoing industrial world that we now inhabit. Petroleum is something that is intrinsically linked to various different industries and is an important component in the successful running of those industries.

The whole petroleum industry has many components and involves the handling of petroleum products and resources, meaning that it involves not only extracting it from the Earth, but also finding said resources, refining it, transporting it and ultimately marketing it. This could involve various petroleum technologies along the way, including pipelines and other vessels that are required for transportation. Petroleum products usually refer to fuel oil and petrol, used in various different fields around the world and are vital parts of plastics companies, pesticides, pharmaceuticals, solvents and fertilizers, plus a range of other chemical products.

It is largely believed and accepted that petroleum is the result of a process that takes hundreds of millions of years to complete. It begins with the fossilisation of plants and animals, which are then heated and placed under enormous amounts of pressure within the Earth’s crust. What is then left is a liquid found by humans in the modern day within rock formations. However, like many fossil fuels, petroleum cannot last forever as a result and there is ongoing concern regarding how much the world’s resources are being consumed. So whilst the world relies heavily on petroleum technology and industry, there is also an ongoing search for a clean renewable energy that can take civilisation into the future.

But petroleum technologies have been used for thousands of years and the history of such utilisation demonstrates the volume that will have been consumed with time. Petroleum could have been used by the ancients and while it is certain it will have been used for fires, there is also evidence that the ancient Persians and Chinese used them for medicines and for lighting.

Today, the technologies related to petroleum conjure up images of oil tankers, oil rigs and pipelines transported resources along large expanses of the Earth. In terms of pipes, these have been in use since they were first suggested in 1863 by Dmitri Mendeleev, paving the way for the pipes that now transport liquids, gases and others in the modern day.

Petroleum technology is very important in the working of modern society and will remain so for some time to come.