PROBLEM

Suggest another name for the term Production as used in the Petroleum industry.
SOLUTION
Crude oil in its natural form has been known and used by humans for a long time. In pre-
Christian era, it was used in building and construction due to one of its components, asphalt,
which has a cementing property. In the Bronze Age, asphalt-coated trees were used to
reinforce wall joints and corners; crude oil was also used for medicinal purposes and also
used in Egypt to embalm dead rulers. The use of crude oil was also mentioned in some parts
of the Bible being used for caulking of vessels; as a waterproofing material; as a fuel, etc.
The diagram below (Fig. 1) shows the stratification of the Petroleum Industry. From the
diagram, it is observed that the term Production is used to describe the processes of
exploitation of an oil field, drilling, collection, gathering and preparation of crude oil.

Fig. 1: Stratification of the Petroleum Industry
Today, crude oil in its natural form has practically no value; from Fig. 1, it can be observed
that crude oil has to be refined in a refinery so that such useful products as PMS, DPK, AGO,
Lubes, Raw materials for chemical industries, etc. can be obtained. Basically, crude oil today
is only a raw material to the petroleum refining process.
The word production can be said to come from the word product. The term product as
defined in McGraw-Hills second edition of the Dictionary of Engineering means:
An item or goods made by an industrial firm
Let us yet consider another definition, that of the phrase extractive industries.
BusinessDictionary.com defines extractive industry as:
Any processes that involve the extraction of raw materials from the earth to
be used by consumers. The extractive industry consists of any operations that
remove metals, mineral and aggregates from the earth. Examples of
extractive processes include oil and gas extraction, mining, dredging and
quarrying.
Following these definitions, one may wonder why the term production is used to describe
the drilling, collection, gathering and preparation of crude oil; when no major industrial
activity occurs in that stage and when the product is primarily a raw material to a more
industrialised process, the process of refining.
While it is safe to say that crude oil as it was used in the past was considered an end
product, a proper look at its use today shows that it is more of a raw material to another
process than it actually is a product. It is collected and sent to the oil refinery where
important fuels, oils and other raw materials are generated. Such fuels and oils are indeed
the products that can be used directly by the consumer. It is in my opinion, as such, that a
more appropriate term should be used to describe the process of exploitation of an oil field,
drilling, collection, gathering and preparation of crude oil. I suggest, as supported by the
definition of the phrase extractive industry shown above, that the more appropriate term
that should be used to describe this process is oil extraction and not oil production.


REFERENCES
BusinessDictionary.com (2014) Extractive Industry [Online] Available at:
http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/extractive-industry.html (Accessed: July 20,
2014)
Mohammed-Dabo, I. A. and Balarabe, Y. U. (2014) Module Two Petroleum Refining (CHEN
807)