Environmental technology is important to take a few moments to remember how we became so involved with this substance, oil. Regardless of our opinions about its use, oil is, and has been, the key resource in the twentieth century. From humble beginnings as a medicine and a lamp oil, oil has become the energy of choice for transport and many other applications, and the feedstock for a major class of the material used today, plastic. Environmental technology is all the conditions, circumstances and influences surrounding and affecting the development of an organism or group of organisms. Environmental technology is the scientific study or the application of methods that will enable us to understand and handle problems which influence our surroundings, the surroundings around oil industry facilities and where oil products are used. Traditionally the phrase has meant the application of additional treatment processes added on to industrial processes to treat air, water and waste before discharge to the environment. Increasingly the phrase has a new meaning where the concept is to create cleaner process technology and move towards sustainability.