Downstream
Introduction to Downstream
The downstream segment of the Oil and Gas market is primarily focused on the activities of extracting "products" from the raw crude oil that meet the demand of the market area. These activities are cumulatively referred to as the "refining process". It is the refining process that extracts these "value products" from the crude. Some of these products are naphtha, gasoline, aviation fuel, kerosene, diesel and petroleum chemicals.
Crude oil is a complex mixture of numerous chemical compounds. Each of these chemical compounds possesses specific physical and chemical characteristics. The refining process involves separation, conversion, upgrade and purification of chemical compounds.
The refining process is based on utilizing these varying characteristics to, in effect, "fractionate" or "cut" the crude into end products. The most common of these characteristics is referred to as the "boiling point", or the temperature at which a chemical will "vaporize" - much as water does when its temperature reaches 212° F or 100° C. These "vapors" can be captured and cooled or "condensed" back into the pure liquid state - thus the separation of a single product from the complex crude mixture.
The refining process converts large chemical compounds into smaller ones that boil in the range of products the market area demands. This process is called "cracking". The refining also changes the chemical composition of certain boiling ranges in order to improve product quality through reforming or combining smaller compounds into larger compounds with higher quality such as gasoline octane. Lastly, the refining process removes impurities such as sulfur to reduce petroleum products impact on the environment.
The above is obviously an overly simplified description of the process. In real life, there are many more difficult and complicated steps to yielding the quality and quantity of value product desired by the marketplace. These various steps are described in the "Your Business" section of this web.
