Oil products are produced from crude oil

Crude oil is a mixture of all kinds of different hydrocarbons, that can be seperated and made to different uses.

The refinery: did you know….?? Oil products are produced from crude oil (or: petroleum). An oil refinery will convert crude oil into oil products, which after further treating and processing, are used as fuels, lubricants, bitumen, solvents or as petrochemical feedstock.

Crude oil is a mixture of all kinds of different hydrocarbons. The first step in the refining process is separating the crude oil in several fractions based on their difference in boiling point. The second step in the refining process involves purifying (or: treating) the oil fractions. Typically sulphur compounds and other undesirable components are removed. 

The third group of processes is the group of the conversion processes. There are two types of conversion processes: Reforming (or: gasoline) processes, to improve the octane number of gasoline. The second group include the Cracking processes, aiming at the conversion of higher boiling (less valuable) products into low boiling (more valuable) products such as (cracked) gasoline and gas oil.