The oil and natural gas industry is typically broken down into three focus areas: upstream, midstream, and downstream. Oil exploration, extraction, and production are the main activities of upstream oil companies.
Midstream activities include the storage, processing, and transportation of petroleum products in between upstream and downstream processes. Companies that specialize in pipeline development, operating tanker ships, terminals, or storage facilities may fall under the midstream category. Marine terminals, for example, provide distribution, storage, blending, inventory management, and additive injection services to refiners, marketers, traders, and other petroleum product end-users.
Downstream companies, meanwhile, are in charge of refining and transporting petroleum products to end users. Refineries, petroleum product distributors, petrochemical plants, natural gas distributors, and retail outlets are all part of the downstream process. Many everyday products – such as diesel, natural gas, gasoline, heating oil, lubricants, asphalt, insecticides, medicines, and propane as well as intermediate products used for many chemicals including many commonly used plastics (thermoplastics and thermosets), elastomers, and fabrics – come directly from downstream production.
Some of the most common pain points focus on extreme temperatures and pressures, abrasion resistance, friction resistance, resistance to thermal and mechanical shock, dimensional stability, chemical resistance, anti-corrosivity especially against the effects of sour gas (HS2), and long service life to name a few.
