Petroleum

Petroleum

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Petroleum, complex mixture of hydrocarbons that occur in Earth in liquid, gaseous, or solid form. The term is often restricted to the liquid form, commonly called crude oil, but, as a technical term, petroleum also includes natural gas and the viscous or solid form known as bitumen, which is found in tar sands. The liquid and gaseous phases of petroleum constitute the most important of the primary fossil fuels. Liquid and gaseous hydrocarbons are so intimately associated in nature that it has become customary to shorten the expression “petroleum and natural gas” to “petroleum” when referring to both. The word petroleum (literally “rock oil” from the Latin petra, “rock” or “stone,” and oleum, “oil”) was first used in 1556 in a treatise published by the German mineralogist Georg Bauer, known as Georgius Agricola.

Encyclopædia Britannica