Refining - the process of purifying a substance. Most often "refining" refers to the tasks that take place in a refinery involving the purifying of crude oil into more useable products such as gasoline and diesel fuel. Refining of liquids is often accomplished by the distillation process. Refineries also use controlled chemical reactions to create more high-demand products from crude oil.

A refinery contains several different areas or units which work together to produce quality products that are in demand. There are several different types of refineries, but our program focuses on these:

• Petroleum (or oil) refinery - converts crude oil into motor fuels (gasoline, diesel), petroleum gases (lpg), aircraft fuel, kerosene, heating oils, lubricating oils, asphalt and petroleum coke.
  
  
• Natural gas processing plant - purifies raw natural gas into useful residential, commercial and industrial fuel gas. Also recovers natural gas liquids (NGLs) such as ethane, propane, butanes and pentanes.