English term
Germany
oil
| 5 +5 | Erdöl |
Yorkshireman
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Jan 5, 2014 16:40: Steffen Walter changed "Field (specific)" from "Finance (general)" to "Petroleum Eng/Sci"
Non-PRO (2): Edith Kelly, Ulrike Kraemer
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Proposed translations
Erdöl
A few examples of the use of both terms:
Rohöl = unrefined oil/ aka crude oil or simply crude (as it comes out of the ground)
Erdöl = mineral oil/petroleum - liquid oil extracted from boreholes or extracted from tar sands/shales - often very viscous before refining. AKA Petroleum (literally Steinöl) doesn't look (or smell) like anything you think of as being oil - in many cases, it is more similar to tar and smells of rotten eggs.
BTW: OPEC is the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries - translated as "Organisation erdölexportierender Länder"
Ölvorkommen - oil reserves/oil fields
Öllagerstätten - oil fields/oil deposits - not necessarily tapped
Ölschiefer - oil shales
Ölsande - oil sands
In my industry sector (exploration geophysics) - aka the upstream segment or E&P (exploration and production) the term used is Erdöl (and natural gas is Erdgas). The midstream and downstream segments (refining, transportation, petroleum products and marketing) call it oil.
As you can see, it depends on which end of the production chain you are at.
Bearing this in mind, I would recommend calling it "Erdöl" when speaking of the countries possessing oil reserves and exporting "crude/Rohöl" and "Öl" when talking about refining, processing and finished products.
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Note added at 6 hrs (2014-01-05 23:29:27 GMT)
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BTW: The company I worked for almost 30 years was a German company based in Hannover called Prakla-Seismos - one of the world's three largest seismic exploration companies - which was later gradually swallowed by the Schlumberger oilfield services concern from the USA and, in a fusion of various US, Scandinavian, British and German companies, eventually became Geco-Prakla and finally Western Geco.
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Note added at 17 hrs (2014-01-06 09:41:22 GMT)
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Interesting oil industry trivia:
From an article about Saudi Aramco's plans to invest 100 billion USD in the construction of refining facilities in Saudi Arabia:
"Saudi Arabia, the largest Arab economy, will need to import 100,000 to 120,000 barrels of gasoline a day from June through August to meet summer demand, the traders and analysts in the Bloomberg survey said. A joint-venture facility at the port of Jubail will produce 90,000 barrels of the fuel a day after it starts operating next quarter, according to Saudi Aramco, as the state-owned company is known. "
| agree |
Virginie Mair
: nice and clear, thanks a lot
2 hrs
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| agree |
Coqueiro
5 hrs
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| agree |
Camilla Seifert
: Excellent explanation!
10 hrs
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| agree |
Edith Kelly
13 hrs
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| agree |
Rolf Kern
: Und wenn das Wort einmal langweilig wirkt, genügt hier auch "Öl".
20 hrs
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Discussion
I "recommend" the use of the term Erdöl. If the asker decides to use or reject an answer based on decades of knowledge and experience in this area and industry, then so be it.
I am not translating for the asker (I get paid for translating :-) ), just providing what may or may not be useful/helpful information.
The terminology says it: Ölvorkommen = oil reserves
i.e. oil that has been discovered by seismic exploration and geological interpretation of the results (or, very rarely, by wildcat drilling/Probebohrungen) but not yet extracted. This is Erdöl.
Once extracted, the terminology changes and it becomes Rohöl (crude/unrefined oil). The processing (refining) of crude into petroleum products (Ölprodukte/Petroleum Produkte) is not yet a significant component of the petroleum industry in the Middle East/Nahost (with the exception of Iran).
For the European markets, crude oil is shipped in tankers to ports such as Rotterdam and sold on from there to refineries (BTW: the spot market for crude in Rotterdam determines the price of oil and, in turn, the petrol you buy at the filling station).
Ich bin seit ein paar Jahrzehnten berufstätig und je älter ich werde, um so skeptischer werde ich - auch der Überzeugung anderer Menschen gegenüber, ohne Hintergrundwissen etwas mit 100% Sicherheit behaupten zu können.
Was Kontext ist, scheint aber weithin unbekannt zu sein – dabei wette ich, dass das in jeder Übersetzerausbildung ausführlich erklärt wird. Zum Kontext gehören unter anderem auch Textsorte, Stil, vorgesehener Leserkreis und Medium. Zu Erdöl liefert schon ein einfaches Synonymwörterbuch "flüssiges/schwarzes Gold, Mineralöl, Öl". Und auch das ist ja noch nicht alles: Vielleicht muss man freier übersetzen und das "Öl" ganz weglassen. Z. B.: "Der Schatz, den die Scheichs unter ihrem Wüstensand haben, reicht aus, um ..."
Offshore surveys are under way off the coast of Israel, Syria and the Lebanon, so it's only a matter of time before the first rigs populate the coasts of the Mediterranean and bring new conflicts (as is forecast for the Aegean and offshore Cyprus, where Turkey and Greece are already sharpening their swords). Further conflict is expected in the Adriatic, the Caspian Sea and onshore in the Iraq/Turkey/Kurdistan/Afghanistan region.
Danke für die Hilfen!