The U.S. is the largest, most sophisticated producer of refined petroleum products in the world. Petroleum is the single largest source of energy used in the United States. The nation uses two times more petroleum than either coal or natural gas and four times more than nuclear power or renewable energy sources. Every person in the U.S. consumes on average 20 pounds of petroleum per day. Oil provides about 40 percent of the energy Americans consume and 97 percent of our transportation fuels.

Research and development programs that improve productivity and energy efficiency are key to maintaining the viability of the US petroleum refining industry.

The Industries of the Future process helps to ensure that scarce R&D resources are strategically allocated to maximize benefits. OIT provides cost-shared funding to selected R&D projects that address industry-defined priorities as well as national goals for energy and the potentially high-payoff technologies that are too risky or costly to attract adequate private funding.

The Missouri Petroleum Industry consists of 27 companies in two major categories

Missouri Petroleum Industry Facts

• The Petroleum Industry employs nearly 1400 people
• Petroleum companies are located in 8 Missouri counties
• The two leading counties by employment are:
  • St. Louis County = 877 employees (63% of the total employment)
  • Clay County = 314 employees (22% of the total employment)
• The area with the most companies is the St. Louis City, St. Louis County Region with 16 companies

Missouri Industry Profile

PETROLEUM INDUSTRY PROFILE (PowerPoint, 172 KB)

OIT Petroleum Industry Vision and Roadmap

PETROLEUM REFINING VISION (PDF, 684 KB)

PETROLEUM INDUSTRY TECHNOLOGY ROADMAP (PDF, 318 KB)

Department of Energy Web Pages

OIT's Petroleum IOF Home Page

EIA's Petroleum Industry Analysis Brief