It is a fuel, and a holy ointment. It is the midnight oil burned by scholars. It is the fuel celebrated in Hannuka. It is the unction used to annoint babies at baptisms, kings at coronations, and the dying at last rites. And the olive branch is the foremost symbol of an offer of peace.
Petroleum is a fossil fuel.
It is the product of once-living things long extinct. But we get vegetable oils from plants living today, and these crops can be changed by the tools of biotechnology. Soybeans and canola are examples of North American crops that plant breeders have bred for changed composition of oils, for use in food, in lubricants, and in detergents. The power to claim patents for living organisms is a crucial factor in the story of US biotechnology.