The world has been under siege by a commodity that has been discovered several centuries back by mankind. Ever since its discovery this commodity has gained the status of becoming the most important commodity in this whole world. This commodity is none other that the precious crude oil or what it is popularly referred to by the world wide community as “Petroleum”.
In fact after its arrival it has totally changed the outlook of the world with its multitude of uses that it has been used for. Right from serving as the fuel for the aircraft to its use for domestic lighting and fuel for automobiles, it has become a very rare kind of commodity in this whole world. The term petroleum has been derived from the Greek word where the first term in petroleum Petra stands for rock and oleum means oil in Greek.
This commodity is produced inside the oil wells where the petroleum originates deep inside the earth’s crust. The petroleum has been formed due to the degrading of the dead organic matter deep inside the earth for several billions of years. This subsequent decomposition has yielded petroleum or what is called as crude oil in its raw form. Thus the oil exploration companies worldwide do dig deep wells inside the earth, so as to drill out and extract the petroleum that has been embedded and trapped between the crevices of the rocks.
The crude oil or petroleum that is being drilled out from these wells also have a mixture of natural gas contained in them that is also pumped out and sent through the pipelines for being used as a very valuable fuel both for the domestic and also to be used in the industries worldwide. Thus the oil exploration companies have to really dig very deep wells, so as to drill out this very precious commodity and this may also cost the companies several millions of dollars. But when the oil drilling company makes a breakthrough by striking and getting a rich oil well, they make lucrative profits from the huge quantities of the petroleum and natural gas that they pump out from such oil wells.
As a result to locate such huge and prospective oil deposits the oil drilling companies do make use of the geologists, to exactly locate the depth and the position of the oil wells. Though the technology used by the geologists can really position and tell the oil exploration company regarding the approximate location of the oil wells and the depth were they will be found, they still cannot give any guarantee regarding the quantity and also the quality of the petroleum that will be contained inside these oil wells. Because of this there have been many instances, where the quantity as well as the quality of the petroleum has been less and not up to the standards that are marked by the international commodity market. But still the oil exploration and drilling companies are ready to take such risks since they very well know that they can offset such losses when they find a rich strike of petroleum.