1. Classification methods for petroleum products

Crude oil, often referred to as "black gold", produces two main categories of products: the first are almost colorless liquids that refiners frequently refer to as "white"; these are conventional or special gasolines, jet fuel and diesel fuel; their common feature is that they can all be distilled at atmospheric pressure. Other petroleum products, whether liquids or solids, are brown or black in color; these are essentially heavy fuels, lubricants, bitumens and, in some cases, coke. In refineries, this distinction between black and white products is not an artificial one: more often than not, it gives rise to different skills and activities.

Another method of classifying petroleum products concerns the type of application for which they are intended (table 1 ).