User:Milton Beychok/Sandbox

The petroleum industry is usually divided into three major components: Upstream, midstream and downstream, though midstream operations are usually included in the downstream category.

The upstream sector
The upstream oil sector is a term commonly used to refer to the searching for and the recovery and production of crude oil and natural gas. The upstream oil sector is also known as the exploration and production (E&P) sector.

The upstream sector includes the searching for potential underground or underwater oil and gas fields, drilling of exploratory wells, and subsequently operating the wells that recover and bring the crude oil and/or raw natural gas to the surface.

The midstream sector
The midstream industry processes, stores, markets and transports commodities such as crude oil, natural gas, natural gas liquids (mainly ethane, propane and butane) and sulphur. Midstream operations are sometimes included in the downstream category.

The downstreanm sector
The downstream oil sector is a term commonly used to refer to the refining of crude oil, and the selling and distribution of natural gas and products derived from crude oil. Such products include liquified petroleum gas (LPG), gasoline or petrol, jet fuel, diesel oil, other fuel oils, asphalt and petroleum coke.

The downstream sector includes oil refineries, petrochemical plants, petroleum product distribution, retail outlets and natural gas distribution companies. The downstream industry touches consumers through thousands of products such as petrol, diesel, jet fuel, heating oil, asphalt, lubricants, synthetic rubber, plastics, fertilizers, antifreeze, pesticides, pharmaceuticals, natural gas and propane.

Byproduct sulphur
Crude oil is a mixture of hundreds of hydrocarbons, including many which contain sulphur. Refining the crude oil includes converting most of that sulphur into gaseous hydrogen sulphide. Raw natural gas also contains gaseous hydrogen sulphide and sulphur-containing mercaptans, which are removed in natural gas processing plants before the gas is distributed to consumers. The hydrogen sulphide removed in the refining and processing of crude oil and natural gas is subsequently converted into byproduct elemental sulfur. In fact, the vast majority of the 64,000,000 metric tons of sulfur produced worldwide in 2005 was byproduct sulphur from refineries and natural gas processing plants.