Energy Guide:
Major sectors of the oil industry

The oil industry is often divided into three major sectors: upstream, midstream and downstream. However, midstream operations are usually simply included in the downstream category.

Upstream sector
Extraction of petroleum
The upstream sector includes the searching for potential underground or underwater oil and gas fields, drilling of exploratory wells, and subsequently operating the wells that recover and bring the crude oil and/or raw natural gas to the surface. The upstream sector is also known as the exploration and production (E&P) sector.

Midstream sector
The midstream sector processes, stores, markets and transports commodities such as crude oil, natural gas and natural gas liquids (NGLs) such as ethane, propane and butane.

Downstream sector
The downstream sector includes oil refineries, petrochemical plants, petroleum product distribution, retail outlets and natural gas distribution companies. The downstream industry touches consumers through thousands of products such as gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, heating oil, asphalt, lubricants, synthetic rubber, plastics, fertilizers, antifreeze, pesticides, pharmaceuticals, natural gas and propane.