industrial building oil refinery 2021-07-03T00:22:16.764Z An industrial building in which crude oil is transformed and refined into useful products. The useful products include petroleum naphtha, gasoline, diesel fuel, asphalt base, heating oil, kerosene, liquefied petroleum gas, jet fuel and fuel oils. Oil refineries are typically large, sprawling industrial complexes with extensive piping running throughout, carrying streams of fluids between large chemical processing units, such as distillation columns.