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Oil & Gas Industry Trivia Quizzes

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Fun Trivia
4 quizzes and 45 trivia questions.
1.
  It's a Gas!    
Fun Fill-It
 15 Qns
Natural gas, that is
The widespread use of natural gas has become controversial in recent years. Do you know how it is used, and why it is controversial?
Average, 15 Qns, looney_tunes, Sep 15 24
Average
looney_tunes editor
Sep 15 24
287 plays
2.
  The Chemistry of Crude Oil   top quiz  
Multiple Choice
 10 Qns
The journey of crude oil from extraction to public use is a process that I find enjoyable. I hope you enjoy it as well!
Average, 10 Qns, jonnowales, Nov 16 17
Average
jonnowales gold member
3460 plays
3.
  Oil and Gas Drilling 101    
Multiple Choice
 10 Qns
Here's a quiz about drilling for oil.
Average, 10 Qns, KATTERjoe, Jan 24 21
Average
KATTERjoe
Jan 24 21
4007 plays
4.
  Petroleum Refining For Non-Technical People   popular trivia quiz  
Multiple Choice
 10 Qns
Oil refineries are complex facilities that turn crude oil into usable products. This is a quiz that will test your knowledge of the basics of refining technology. Don't worry, it's about common sense - no engineering degree required.
Average, 10 Qns, tadpoles_uk, Mar 31 19
Average
tadpoles_uk
Mar 31 19
796 plays

Oil & Gas Industry Trivia Questions
1. Where does crude oil come from?

From Quiz Petroleum Refining For Non-Technical People

Answer: It is pumped from wells drilled into the ground.

Crude oil reserves lie hundreds or thousands of feet below the surface of the earth. Oil companies drill down into prospective reservoirs to find the oil and pump it to the surface. Of course, many of the wells drilled are 'dry holes', meaning that no commercial quantities of oil are found there. If you answered 'Texas', you're probably a Texan.

2. Crude oil is a mixture of various different compounds called hydrocarbons. These different hydrocarbons need to be separated in a column by which process?

From Quiz The Chemistry of Crude Oil

Answer: Fractional Distillation

Fractional distillation takes place in the fractionating column. The crude oil enters the chamber and, due to differing boiling points, the hydrocarbons are separated into different groups such as naphtha and bitumen. Hydrocarbons are compounds that contain ONLY hydrogen and carbon atoms within their structure.

3. What is the term commonly used to refer to the act of deviating a well bore to head in the direction desired?

From Quiz Oil and Gas Drilling 101

Answer: directional drilling

Directional drilling has advanced the ability to get otherwise unreachable oil. It is now common practice to drill a well horizontally (90 deg.), to distances of 2 miles or more!

4. What is the first step that crude oil undergoes in a refinery?

From Quiz Petroleum Refining For Non-Technical People

Answer: It is heated, and the water and salts are removed.

Raw crude oil contains water and salt that would interfere with the refining equipment. Initially, the oil is heated to lower the viscosity of all the fluids involved, and then run through an electronic grid that makes saltwater fall out of the oil.

5. What is the name commonly given to the liquid used in drilling a well?

From Quiz Oil and Gas Drilling 101

Answer: mud

Many additives are mixed with water, diesel or synthetic oil to make up mud. The properties of the mud are very important to the safe and productive drilling of a well.

6. What is crude oil distillation?

From Quiz Petroleum Refining For Non-Technical People

Answer: A process in which oil is separated into its different components.

Crude oil is a mixture of oil compounds that are separated by multiple boiling and condensing steps into various components. In a distillation tower, the lightest fractions go to the top, and the heaviest components go to the bottom, with intermediate cuts in between.

7. What is the name commonly given to the Oil Company representative who is present while drilling is taking place?

From Quiz Oil and Gas Drilling 101

Answer: the Company Man

Company Men are not always men. Most Company Men these days don't actually work directly for the company who owns the well. They are usually contract employees working for a consulting firm.

8. Environmental regulations dictate that a refinery has to remove certain pollutants from the products before they leave the plant. What contributor to 'acid rain' is removed in the refining process?

From Quiz Petroleum Refining For Non-Technical People

Answer: Sulfur

Sulfur comes out of the refinery as a by-product. Elemental sulfur is yellow in color and leaves the plant as a hot liquid in insulated trucks or rail cars to be sold to chemical plants. The removal of sulfur from the oil products means that the sulfur emissions from burning the oil are greatly reduced.

9. Products of hydrocarbon chains can be used in the formation of plastics. If a molecule of ethene (C2H4), a member of the alkene family, reacts with other ethene molecules, what plastic is formed?

From Quiz The Chemistry of Crude Oil

Answer: Polythene

This can also be written as Poly(ethene) and is commonly used in the production of plastic bags. It is a thermoplastic which means its chemical structure can be manipulated when exposed to high temperatures.

10. What is the name given to an offshore drilling rig?

From Quiz Oil and Gas Drilling 101

Answer: All are names given to an offshore drilling rig

Semi-submersibles are floating vessels that are partially sunk to add stability. Jack-ups are vessels with long legs that can be to touch the ocean floor. The body of the vessel is then jacked-up about the waterline roughly 50-70 feet. A drillship uses sophisticated technology called dynamic positioning to keep itself in place while the drilling is underway.

11. What form of water is the most prevalent in oil refinery processing?

From Quiz Petroleum Refining For Non-Technical People

Answer: Steam

Considering the temperatures involved in the refining process, liquid water is the enemy of many process units. Steam is produced in large quantities by the refinery and is consumed internally. Heavy water is one of the building blocks for nuclear weapons and has nothing to do with oil refining.

12. Polymers are, in general, relatively unreactive. One way to dispose of many polymers is to burn them. If a plastic contains sulfuric impurities however, how does this pose an ecological threat?

From Quiz The Chemistry of Crude Oil

Answer: Acid Rain

Acid rain is a serious problem for numerous reasons. Firstly, it can catalyse the erosion of rocks and more seriously statues and forests. Secondly, it can make lakes and other stores of water more acidic which can adversely affect the microclimates and habitats of the region.

13. What is the nickname given to the workers who work on a drilling rig drill floor?

From Quiz Oil and Gas Drilling 101

Answer: Roughnecks

The roughneck's job is to assist in making connections of drill pipe as a well is being drilled, assist in disconnecting pipe when pulling it back out of the well bore, and to keep the drilling rig clean and in working order. Chippies are carpenters, sparkies are electricians and bean counters are accountants.

14. What is the proper spelling of the light oil cut that ends up in gasoline after the refining process is complete?

From Quiz Petroleum Refining For Non-Technical People

Answer: naphtha

Naphtha is a low-octane fraction of crude oil that is upgraded before being blended into gasoline. Naphtha is the most commonly misspelled word in refining terminology. NAFTA is the North American Free Trade Agreement that was ratified in the early 1990s.

15. What type of formations are oil and gas usually found in, particularly in the Middle East?

From Quiz Oil and Gas Drilling 101

Answer: sand

Sand is often permeable and oil and gas will naturally migrate to such a formation.

16. What is "octane rating" for gasoline?

From Quiz Petroleum Refining For Non-Technical People

Answer: A measure of how well gasoline will perform in a car engine.

Octane rating is a key measure of gasoline quality. If the octane is too low, your engine will 'knock' and not run well. If it's too high, the refiner is throwing away money (or you are paying too much for the fuel).

17. When using ethene to create ethanol, a catalyst is used. Which?

From Quiz The Chemistry of Crude Oil

Answer: Phosphoric Acid

Phosphoric acid has the chemical formula H3PO4. A catalyst is a substance which accelerates the rate of a reaction without reacting itself.

18. What is the name given to the tall, main structure of a drilling rig?

From Quiz Oil and Gas Drilling 101

Answer: the derrick

The derrick is the part of the drilling rig that houses the block and drill line used for lowering and raising the drill pipe in the drilling process.

19. The heaviest material that comes out of a refinery is a product that you and I use almost daily. Where can you find it?

From Quiz Petroleum Refining For Non-Technical People

Answer: On roads and parking lots

Many plants produce asphalt for sale to paving contractors. Asphalt has to be kept above 400 degrees F to make it flow as a liquid. Asphalt is also used in roofing shingles.

20. Alkanes and alkenes are two chemical families found within crude oil. What chemical substance can be used to differentiate between two unknown substances - one containing an alkane, the other, an alkene?

From Quiz The Chemistry of Crude Oil

Answer: Bromine Water

Bromine with water (alternatively bromine with trichloroethane) forms an orange solution. It can also be described as a yellow to brown colour. When bromine water is added to an alkane there is no reaction, hence, no colour change. When bromine water is added to an alkene, a dibromo-alkane compound is formed and the colour of the solution changes from the original orange (yellow/brown) to a state of colourlessness.

21. It smells like rotten eggs, and one good whiff of it in high concentrations will kill you instantly. It is sometimes encountered in formations while drilling for oil.

From Quiz Oil and Gas Drilling 101

Answer: Hydrogen Sulfide

Concentrations of H2S as low as 10 PPM (parts per million), or .001% by volume, are considered unhealthy by OSHA. Short term exposures to concentrations between 10 and 100 PPM can cause mild eye and respiratory tract irritation, headaches, and nausea. Short term exposure to concentrations between 100 PPM and 400 PPM can cause serious eye and respiratory tract irritation, headaches, severe nausea, and disorientation. Anything above 300 PPM is considered lethal.

22. What is the name of the tall pipe that burns off excess gas from the refinery (and often shows a visible flame)?

From Quiz Petroleum Refining For Non-Technical People

Answer: Flare

The flare is a safety outlet for a refinery's operation. Gases that escape overpressure devices in the plant are burned in the flare. If you pass a plant and the flare is burning brightly, they are having operational problems. I once worked at a refinery where one of the neighbors called up on a Saturday afternoon to say that they were having a party in their back yard that evening, and they would appreciate it if we could make the flare burn heavy for them that night to help light up the yard.

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Last Updated Nov 01 2025 5:50 AM
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