Source identification of oil with its thousands of compounds has always
been a great challenge for analytical chemists. With the significant improvements in
analytical instrumentation and work-up techniques this challenge has started to become
possible to overcome. Lately, the development of new mass spectrometry techniques
and the increased sensitivity of the instruments have made it possible to analyze a big
fraction of compounds found in oil in one single analysis. The analytical field
conducting oil fingerprinting is now commonly referred to as petroleomics. The main
focus of this chapter is directed towards how analyses are used in environmental
investigations at present and how the technology can be used in the future for oil spill
forensics.
Keywords: Analytical chemistry, Crude oil, Mass spectrometry (MS), Oil
fingerprinting, Petroleomics, Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs).
