Oil

If your home uses heating oil, you are tied to millions of years of history.
Oil is really the remains of ancient plants and animals, compressed deep in the earth into liquid strings of hydrogen and carbon. People have known about oil since the ancient Greeks gave it its name, petroleum, from the Greek "petra" for rock and "oleum" for oil. If you have children interested in dinosaurs, you might mention they have parts of dinosaurs in their oil tank!
The modern history of oil began in the 1840s, when a Canadian geologist discovered that crude oil could be distilled into kerosene to light lanterns.
Oil takes a long journey from deep in the earth to the tank in your home.
The journey begins when crude oil is turned into a series of products, including gasoline, jet fuel, and heating oil. Oil is extremely stable, and must be heated above 140 degrees before it will begin to burn. Inside your furnace or boiler, your oil burns extremely hot - 400 degrees hotter than natural gas or propane - and is extremely efficient in heating your home!
More than three-quarters of oil in the U.S. now comes from outside the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), and our supplies often arrive from Canada, Mexico or Venezuela. We will have a safe supply of oil for years to come.