ABSTRACT
We start our discussion with the three keywords that describe the title of this book, which deserve to be defined individually.
The term “petroleum” is a combination of two different words, “petra” meaning rock and “oleum” meaning oil, originating from Greek and Latin languages, respectively. Sometimes the word “rock oil” also is used to describe petroleum since the oil resides in the rock. In very generic terminology, petroleum may refer to hydrocarbons (compounds of carbon and hydrogen) in both the gaseous and liquid states (more common), which are found in nature in raw or unrefined (hence the word crude oil) forms and are separated into different fractions to produce a variety of transportation fuels (natural gas, gasoline, diesel, kerosene, aviation fuel, lube oils, etc.) and petrochemical products (polymers, plastics, etc.).
