Answer to Question #20726 in Organic Chemistry for rizwan

Question

what is petroleum

Answer 1

Petroleum is a thick, flammable, yellow-to-black mixture of gaseous, liquid, and solid hydrocarbons that occurs naturally beneath the earth's surface, can be separated into fractions including natural gas, gasoline, naphtha, kerosene, fuel and lubricating oils, paraffin wax, and asphalt and is used as raw material for a wide variety of derivative products.
Petroleum has probably been formed by a slow decomposition of organic matter under the earth's surface.