Chemists in the oil and petroleum industry work with crude oil and the products derived from it.  They have a broad spectrum of jobs such as:

• “Fingerprinting” oil leaked in a spill
• Process control at a refinery
• Developing catalysts used in the refining process
• Creating new polymers for fibers and resins

Definitions:

Fingerprinting – a process that refers to analytical chemistry techniques by which crude oil is defined into its components in such a way as to permit the identification of a particular sample of crude oil by the uniqueness of its composition.

Process control – an engineering discipline that enables mass production of continuous processes such as oil refining, paper manufacturing, chemicals, power plants and many other industries. Process control enables automation, with which a small staff of operating personnel can operate a complex process from a central control room.