An
oil refinery or
petroleum refinery is an
industrial process plant where
crude oil is processed and refined into more useful products such as
petroleum naphtha,
gasoline,
diesel fuel,
asphalt base,
heating oil,
kerosene and
liquefied petroleum gas. Oil refineries are typically large, sprawling
industrial complexes with extensive
piping running throughout, carrying streams of
fluids between large
chemical processing units. In many ways, oil refineries use much of the technology of, and can be thought of, as types of
chemical plants. The crude oil feedstock has typically been processed by an
oil production plant. There is usually an
oil depot (tank farm) at or near an oil
refinery for the storage of incoming crude oil feedstock as well as bulk liquid products.