The process is a little more complicated than that. Oil Refineries Oil's first stop after being pumped from a well is an oil refinery. A refinery is a plant where crude oil is processed. Sometimes, refineries are located near oil wells, but usually the crude oil has to be delivered to the refinery by ship, barge, pipeline, or train. After the crude oil has reached the refinery, huge round tanks store the oil until it is ready to be processed.
Tank farms are sites with many storage tanks.
An oil refinery cleans and separates the crude oil into various fuels and by-products. The most important one is gasoline. Some other petroleum products are diesel fuel, heating oil, and jet fuel. Refineries use many different methods to make these products. One method is a heating process called distillation .