Crude oil is the term used for oil that is taken straight out of the ground. Crude oil is a "fossil fuel," which means that it formed from organic remains over a period of millions of years. Crude oil can be refined into various forms of energy such as gasoline, diesel fuel and heating oil. It also is a key component in a broad variety of products. For example, crude oil is an important ingredient in plastics, medicines, crayons and tires. About 90 percent of the world's energy consumption comes from fossil fuels. In the United States, approximately 40 percent of all energy used comes from various petroleum products that start out as crude oil.
Crude oil's characteristics vary from "light" - which is a straw-colored liquid - to "heavy" or tar-black solid. Crude oil also is called "sweet" or "sour" depending on the amount of sulfur it contains. Crude oil is an abundant commodity. It is estimated that there are about 650 billion barrels of produced oil, a trillion barrels of proven but yet to be produced oil and 10 trillion barrels of oil awaiting development.
Crude oil is processed at refineries and transformed into useable petroleum products. The cost of transporting and moving crude oil to refineries, plus processing fees, greatly affects the final cost of petroleum products. Motor gasoline constitutes about half of the total volume of products produced from crude oil.
SemGroup's Involvement
SemCrude and SemCanada Crude provide diverse services for the crude oil industry in the United States and Canada, respectively. Services include transportation, gathering, storage and marketing. For specific information, please see the menu on the left side of this page for options.