Heavy oil is asphaltic and contains asphaltenes and resins. Asphaltic surfaces perform intermediately relative to concrete and chip seal. Abernathyite forms as a coating on fractures of asphaltic sandstone containing uranium deposits. The top beds are more dolomitic, thick-bedded, vuggy, and asphaltic than the lower ones. The reason the petroleum becomes asphaltic, or tarry, is the action of oil-metabolizing bacteria. A pipeline was completed in 1956, which carries the asphaltic base crude. In 1949, #401 was sold to the Alabama Asphaltic Limestone Company in Margerum, Alabama. It is described as an asphaltic pyrobitumen.