Concept information
Preferred term
downstream
Definition
- The term downstream has historically been used in the natural resources and chemicals industries, and specifically in the oil and gas industry, to refer to activities that relate to the processing of crude oil and natural gas or related petroleum products to the point where the feedstock is broken down and purified into a series of products such as aviation gas (avgas) or bitumen for roads, or petrol/gasoline for cars and trucks, or even when natural gas is used as a source material for electricity generation. The origins are in the sense of location of the deposition of minerals in a streambed, e.g., gold-panning activities (so even older than petroleum exploration and production) where heavy minerals were deposited “down stream,” i.e., away from the water's source but originated “upstream.” It is, however, also used today to refer to bioprocesses where it refers to the purification and quality control processes for new biological materials, data transfer speeds between host servers and clients analogous to downloading, and as a term for later activities or later elements of sequencing in manufacturing and production processes. [Source: Encyclopedia of Business in Today's World; Downstream]
Broader concept
Belongs to group
URI
https://concepts.sagepub.com/social-science/concept/downstream
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