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Oil, Gas & Mining vocabulary · Industry, Reserves & Contracts

Upstream

Meaning in oil, gas & mining, with examples

/ˈʌpstriːm/adjectiveCore term

In oil, gas & mining, upstream means: Describing the first stage of the oil and gas business: finding hydrocarbons, drilling wells and bringing oil and gas to the surface.

In Turkish: arama-üretim, upstream, arama ve üretim sektörü

How it is used

Used in company profiles, job ads, strategy reports and news: upstream sector, upstream operations, upstream company. It also works as a noun, as in 'she works in upstream'. The short form E&P (exploration and production) means the same thing.

Example sentences

  1. After ten years in upstream operations, he moved to a job at a refinery.

  2. Upstream investment usually falls when oil prices drop sharply.

Common collocations

  • upstream sector
  • upstream operations
  • upstream investment
  • upstream and downstream
  • downstreamDescribing the last stage of the oil and gas business: refining crude oil, then distributing and selling fuels and other products to customers.
  • midstreamDescribing the middle part of the oil and gas business, which moves and stores oil and gas between the field and the refinery or market through pipelines, tankers, terminals and tanks.
  • explorationThe work of searching for new oil, gas or mineral deposits, using geological mapping, geophysical surveys, sampling and test drilling.
  • reservesThe amount of oil, gas or ore that is known to exist and can be produced at a profit with current technology and prices, estimated under set rules.

More terms: Industry, Reserves & Contracts

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