oil business
12
3.4
- noun
- /oʊl ˈbɪznəs/
:
industria petrolera
- Many companies worldwide operate in the oil business by exploring and drilling for new oil fields.
And they've been involved in lots of things, not just gold mines or torture, but also consider this the oil business.
- And they've been involved in lots of things, not just gold mines or torture, but also consider this the oil business.
Examples
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Big Howard made his money leasing drilling bits in the oil business.
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I began my career in the oil business in Midland, Texas, in 1975.
Blog text (31) -
My folks are both in the oil business down there.
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This is the oil business we're talking about?
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A year is a long time in the oil business.
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Not since he went into the oil business.
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I'll never get away from the oil business.
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I live in Houston, and there are many in my community who are employed by the oil business.
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Well, let's see, you had a bad war, and then in the twenties, you drank yourself out of a good job in the oil business.
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There have been, for example, as many as 40 joint ventures with Western companies in the oil business, yet their share of total output in 1996 was less than 8 percent.
Academic text (1999)
Synonyms
34
3.0
Businesses that find, get, make, and sell oil and things made from it
12
3.2
Large companies in the oil industry that have much money and political power
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'the industry involved in production, processing and distribution of oil' is directly and transparently derived from combining 'oil' (the commodity) with 'business' (commercial activity): it denotes businesses dealing with oil. This noun‑noun composition is a common, cross‑linguistic pattern, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents will readily infer the intended meaning.
Etymology
Oil business comes from the simple picture of people finding oil and selling it: the oil is the dark fuel pulled from the ground, and the business is the work of getting, preparing, and selling it. So, oil business means the 'industry' that gets, prepares, and sells oil and oil products.