mineral oil that is found under the ground or the sea and is used to produce petrol, paraffin, diesel oil, etc. 石油;原油 The government suspended its supplies of petroleum to the country as a result of the crisis. 受危机的影响,政府暂停了对那个国家的石油供应。 There were still 30 million barrels of refined petroleum in storage. 仍有3000万桶精炼石油在储存。
Oxford Collocations DictionaryPetroleum is used before these nouns:- exploration
- geology
- reserve
- …
Word Originlate Middle English: from medieval Latin, from Latin petra ‘rock’ (from Greek) + Latin oleum ‘oil’.