Liquid fossil fuels, both petroleum and synthetically derived oils, are exceedingly complex mixtures of thousands of components. The effect of many of these energy-related components on the environment is largely unknown. Octanol/water distribution coefficients relate both to toxicity and to the bioaccumulation potential of chemical components. Use of these partition data in conjunction with component concentrations in the oils in environmental models provides important information on the fate of fossil fuel components when released to the environment. Octanol/water distribution data are not available for many energy-related organic compounds, and those data that are available have been determined for individual components in simple, one-component octanol/water equilibrium mixtures. In this study, methods for determining many octanol/water distribution coefficients from aqueous extracts of oil products were developed. Sample aqueous mixtures were made by equilibrating liquid fossil fuels with distilled water. This approach has the advantage of detecting interactions between components of interest and other sample components. Compound types studied included phenols, nitrogen bases, hydrocarbons, sulfur heterocyclic compounds, and carboxylic acids. Octanol/water distribution coefficients that were determined in this study ranged from 9.12 for aniline to 67,600 for 1,2-dimethylnaphthalene. Within a compound type, distribution coefficients increased logarithmically with increasing alkyl substitution and molecular weight. …