Coking is a refinery process that produces 19% of finished petroleum product exports

Coking is a refinery unit operation that upgrades material called bottoms from the atmospheric or vacuum distillation column into higher-value products and, as the name implies, produces petroleum coke - a coal-like material. Exports of petroleum coke accounted for about 19% of the nation's finished petroleum product exports through October 2012 with most going to China and other Asian countries.