There’s the oil from the oil wells which is inflammable but it’s not in the form of petrol or diesel, which is also decided from the same oil, but petrol isn’t oily to the touch the way regular cooking oil is. But cooking oil isn’t as inflammable, irrespective of whether it comes from sunflowers, or groundnuts, or coconuts or some other source. However, the oil on our skin is oily, but again not inflammable.
Help me wrap my heart around all these different ‘oils’ – and why some are more oily to the touch vs those that are not, and why some are inflammable vs those that are not.
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Oil from wells is crude oil.
That stuff is split via a process called fractional distillation, producing everything from LPG (liquid petroleum gas, often butane or propane), kerosene (aviation fuel), gasoline (petrol), all the way to heavy stuff like bitumen (the tar they put in expansion cracks on roads).
The original crude oil and all of its products are hydrocarbons, they’re not actually oils in the same chemical sense as the others you listed, naming coincidence
Oil pressed from plant matter is generally comprised of a variety of natural acids and fats. The relative ratio of these in a mixture goes some way to determine its properties
The oil secreted by your skin is called Sebum, much like plant-based oils it’s comprised of fatty acids plus a load of triglycerides (which themselves contain more fatty acid). Honestly human skin oil is fairly close to vegetable fats.
I suspect (guess) that the ‘oily’ touch sensation is actually coming from the fats involved, but it’s not something I’ve ever examined (mainly Chem background)
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