Petroleum is a term for a series of subsurface fluids, composed significantly, but not entirely, of hydrocarbons, which occur concentrated

in reservoirs and can be produced at the surface as oil or gas, or both, and sometimes as liquid condensates. The term hydrocarbon in its strict chemical sense refers to a chemical compound composed solely of hydrogen and carbon. Examples would be methane (CH4), a gas; decane (C10H22), an alkane and a liquid at room temperature and pressure; or phenanthrene (C14H10), an aromatic hydrocarbon and a solid at room temperature and pressure. All three occur naturally in solution in oil, and gas condensates; methane is the major component of most natural gases. Petroleum also contains compounds other than hydrocarbons, including organic carbon compounds that contain oxygen, nitrogen, and especially sulphur. Normally it also contains significant quantities of non-hydrocarbon gases such as carbon dioxide, nitrogen, hydrogen sulphide, and traces of inert gases such as helium. The three commonly described forms of petroleum are natural gas, which does not condense at standard temperature and pressure; gas condensate, which is a gas-phase petroleum in the reservoir but partly condenses to a liquid (the condensate) at the surface; and oil, a petroleum that was liquid in the reservoir but produces a gas (solution gas) and a liquid phase, crude oil, at the surface. Some oils, such as those in tar sands, or very waxy oils from South-east Asia, may be solid or nearly solid at the surface. Although usually dominated by the hydrocarbons, petroleums may contain up to 80 per cent or more of non-hydrocarbons. Most North Sea oils contain 5090 per cent of hydrocarbons. Inorganic gases such as carbon dioxide, nitrogen, helium, and hydrogen sulphide are common components of petroleums, ranging in abundance from trace components to major fractions of the fluid.

Composition
Petroleum can be classified by its composition and the relative amounts of various chemical components. Natural gases contain principally hydrocarbons with from 15 carbon atoms. They can exist in the reservoir as a gas phase or in solution in a liquid petroleum. In the reservoir under pressure, crude oil is a mixture of liquid hydrocarbons and non-hydrocarbons. It will contain many thousands of individual components with from 1 to 40 or more carbon atoms per molecule, although compounds with up to 100 or more carbon atoms are found. The largest molecules abundantly present in solution in crude oil will be the asphaltenes, which probably have up to an average of 70 or more carbon atoms, attendant hydrogen atoms, and several oxygen, nitrogen, or sulphur species per molecule. Some asphaltenes may have even larger numbers of carbon and associated atoms in their molecules. Asphaltenes represent small portions of source-rock organic matter dissolved in the crude oil medium. The average size of the molecules in a light crude oil would be about 1520 carbon atoms per molecule. In most petroleums, even oils, methane is commonly the most abundant individual molecule. When oil is produced, the gas comes out of solution, leaving molecules with from 6 or more carbon atoms (the larger molecules) in the liquid oil. Petroleums have a wide range of compositions but can be classified into three major types according to the relative proportions of gaseous (C1C5) hydrocarbons and components with more than six carbon atoms (C6+). Natural gases are petroleums which are in the gas phase in the

subsurface and which are composed of hydrocarbon mixtures dominated by methane with contributions from ethane, propane, butanes, and the pentanes and traces of inorganic gases, principally carbon dioxide and nitrogen. Gases by definition contain no C6+ components. Gas condensates are petroleums that are the gas phase in the subsurface but contain significant amounts of C6+ components (condensate) in gaseous solution. These components include hydrocarbons and non-hydrocarbons, with up to more than 40 carbon atoms. The ratio (by mass) of gas (C1C5) to C6+ components in gas condensates ranges from 3:1 up to very large values. On coming to the surface, as pressure and temperature are reduced in the petroleum production system, gas condensates undergo retrograde condensation, and a liquid phase (the condensate) condenses from the gas phase. Oils are petroleums that are in the liquid phase in the subsurface but contain up to 50 weight per cent of gas in solution. According to the relative amount of solution gas, the dissolved gas, the oil is termed black oil or volatile oil. This solution gas exsolves from the liquid during the reduction in pressure and temperature accompanying petroleum production. Oils and natural gases can coexist in contact in the same reservoir. In this case the oil is saturated with gas under reservoir conditions. Where no separate gas phase is present the oil may not be saturated with gas and is termed undersaturated. The C6+ components of oils and condensates from the North Sea petroleum province are typically dominated by saturated hydrocarbons, with aromatic hydrocarbons in abundance; nonhydrocarbons (resins and asphaltenes) usually represent less than 30 per cent of the fluid. Other petroleums contain different proportions of these fractions, but most petroleums are dominated by the hydrocarbon fractions.