Getting It to Users

Once the well is completed, it is fitted to a collection method. Pipelines are the only way that natural gas is transported in Canada. Oil that is pumped up goes from the well by pipeline to nearby processing plants called batteries, where impurities are removed and collected for other uses. Most of Canada’s oil is pumped by pipeline at four to eight kilometres per hour. Crude oil and refined products are also moved by trucks, tankers, and trains.

Refining it into what you use

The hydrocarbon molecules in petroleum from a well get worked on at refineries and petrochemical plants. There, they become part of products like gasoline, diesel, aviation fuel, heating oil, lubricants, industrial chemicals, propane, butane, plastics, asphalt, synthetic rubber, and more. The natural gas you buy for your furnace is mostly methane. It doesn’t come out of the ground that pure, however. Other substances in it, such as H2S in sour gas, get removed at processing plants.