Where does oil come from?

Many people may have the idea that oil comes from dinosaurs, but that isn’t quite right. Oil actually came from the plants and animals that lived in a marine environment millions of years ago, before the dinosaurs. As the years progressed, the remains of these plants and animals were covered with mud, and the heat and pressure from those layers turned the remains into “crude oil.”

Crude oil is a thick, smelly, yellow-to-black liquid usually found in underground reservoirs, which is removed and sent to a refinery. At the refinery, different parts of the oil separated into useable petroleum products, which is where we get gas and oil, such as Yamalube outboard motor oil.

The word petroleum means “rock oil” or “oil from the earth,” and is made up of Greek and Latin terms.