What is Petroleum?
Petroleum is a mixture of several components like petrol, diesel, lubricating oil and many more. It is a dark oily liquid which has an unpleasant odour. The natural reservoirs of petroleum are the porous rocks under the oceans and seas.
How is Petroleum Formed?
When aquatic organisms died, their bodies settled at the bottom and were covered with layers and layers of sand and clay.
Over millions of years, the high pressure and high temperature caused the decay and compression of this dead matter. In the absence of air, this got slowly converted into a substance called kerogen. Further compression of kerogen over time, formed a black liquid, that is petroleum.
How is Petroleum Extracted?
In order to get the various components of petroleum, it has to be drilled and refined.
As petroleum is in the liquid state, it rises in the porous rocks above the water. But sometimes when it’s on the way to the top, the petroleum is blocked by an impermeable layer of rock that doesn’t allow it to ooze out onto the surface.
 In order to get to this petroleum, big companies drill into these underground reservoirs. This drilled petroleum contains impurities and is therefore processed in huge refineries to give petrol, diesel and other products.
Summary
| Petroleum | Petroleum is a dark oily liquid with an unpleasant odour.
It is a mixture of several components like petrol, diesel, lubricating oil and many more. The natural reservoirs of petroleum are the porous rocks under the oceans and seas. |
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