petroleum: Quick Facts

Written and fact-checked by

The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Facts

Also Known As	oil

Photos and Videos

Multiple large offshore petroleum oil rigs with cranes and equipment stand in the ocean, connected by walkways above the water.

Cross-sectional diagram showing three principal types of petroleum traps: an anticline trap with oil and gas beneath a cap rock, a fault trap where gas accumulates along a fault line, and a stratigraphic trap where gas is trapped in permeable limestone beneath impermeable rock layers. Labels identify geological features and fluid locations.

Map showing oil pipelines originating from the Alberta tar sands in Canada, with routes extending south through the United States. The map uses different lines to distinguish existing pipelines, proposed Keystone XL routes (including an abandoned route through the Nebraska Sand Hills), and other proposed or existing pipelines such as Flanagan South, Seaway, and Enbridge Northern Gateway. The Alberta tar sands region is shaded in orange, and the Ogallala aquifer is marked in pink beneath parts of

Thematic map showing the Arabian-Iranian basin region highlighted in purple, spanning parts of Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Oman, Jordan, and Syria. Major oil fields, including supergiant fields such as Al-Ghawar, Kirkuk, and Ahvaz, are marked with black shapes within the basin. Major water bodies like the Persian Gulf, Red Sea, Gulf of Oman, and Caspian Sea are labeled.

Thematic map of Europe, Russia, Transcaucasia, and Central Asia highlighting major sedimentary basins in purple and marking the locations of major oil and gas fields, with triangles indicating supergiant and selected giant fields. The map shows regional seas, geographic features, and the distribution of hydrocarbon resources across northern Eurasia.

Thematic map of North America showing major sedimentary basins shaded in purple and the locations of significant oil and gas fields, including supergiant and selected giant fields marked with symbols. The map highlights key regions such as the Gulf Coast, Alberta, Permian, Williston, and Prudhoe Bay, and includes both onshore and offshore areas.

Oil production in Bahrain

Colombia: oil refinery

Oil pumpjack with a red counterweight operating in a snowy field in western Siberia, Russia, with industrial equipment and trees in the background.

Diagram showing seismic exploration for petroleum, with a blast generating shock waves that travel through layers of clay, shale, sandstone, and limestone. Reflected waves are detected by sensors on the surface, with data sent to a recording truck and film record. Subsurface layers include gas, oil, and salt water.

The environmental impact of Canada's oil sands industry

Learn how crude oil is heated to condense into gasoline, kerosene, diesel fuel, bitumen, and other products

Visit an oil rig in Texas's Permian Basin and learn how petroleum is pumped and refined along the Gulf Coast

See Germany's use of modern exploration and drilling techniques to tap its petroleum resources in the North Sea

Go aboard an oil platform to learn about petroleum extraction from the reserves off the Chilean coast

See All Videos, Images and Interactives →

Topics

protopetroleum naphthene series aromatic series petroleum industry oil window crude oil How Much Oil Does Venezuela Have, and How Much Is Accessible?How Much Oil Passes Through the Strait of Hormuz?How was petroleum discovered?paraffin hydrocarbon coal oil shale peat pyrobitumen torbanite sapropel Do Fossil Fuels Really Come from Fossils?What causes acid rain?

Dig Deeper: More Articles That Discuss This Topic

Key People

Frederick Augustus Abel, engraving.

Sir Frederick Augustus Abel

British chemist