Field-based and market-based refineries
Topic: Energy Resources of India: Conventional and Non-conventional · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 5 "Mineral and Energy Resources"
Meaning
Crude oil cannot be used straight from the ground. A refinery first separates it into products such as petrol, diesel and kerosene. A field-based refinery is built near the oilfield that supplies it. A market-based refinery is built near the cities and industries that use the products, and it gets crude by pipeline. Moving crude in one pipeline is often easier than moving many different products, so many refineries are placed near markets.
Example
Digboi in Assam is a field-based refinery. It stands near its oilfield and has worked since 1901. Barauni (Bihar), Mathura (Uttar Pradesh) and Panipat (Haryana) are market-based refineries that get crude by pipeline.
Don't confuse with
- Oilfield: the place where crude is taken out of the ground. A refinery is the plant that processes it. The two may or may not be in the same place.
Related concepts
- Petroleum
- Anticline trap
- Oil and Natural Gas Commission
- Digboi oilfield
- Naharkatiya oilfield
- Cambay basin
- Mumbai High
- Barmer oil fields
- Krishna-Godavari basin
- Strategic Petroleum Reserve