Petroleum Refining has developed into a chemical industry of the first magnitude. Oil refineries in the U.S. are located at big oil producing centres and at the ports. The finer products are extracted earlier, and the thicker ones follow. In order of increasing density they are gases, naphtha, petrol, kerosene, fuel oil, lubricating oil, wax and asphalt. The Gulf Coast refineries have a 27% share in American oil refining industry and the Atlantic Coast and California have about 18% each. The refining centers are all oil exporting centres. There are about 320 refineries in the U.S.A., accounting for 60 per cent of the world's refining capacity of 24 million barrels daily. A large part of the U.S. refining capacity is located along the northeastern seaboard of the United States. Such seaboard refineries are close to huge markets and crude oil can be imported from anywhere. Moreover, the seaboard refineries located near the oil fields have the advantage of shipping their products cheaply by ocean tankers.
Mexico. It produced 12 million metric tons in 1988. The oil fields lie along the Gulf Coast. Tampico is the leading oil town of Mexico.
Canada. The known reserves of petroleum in Canada are estimated at 1950 million barrels. Production began in 1859 in Ontario. Turner valley, Alberta, marked the beginning of oil production in the plains area of Canada in 1913. As a result of large discoveries made during 1940-1950 in Alberta and Saskatchewan, production in 1988 was 40 million metric tons in Canada.
South America South America produces 16% of the world's output.
Venezuela: Venezuela occupied second position till 1960. In 1988 her production amounted to 185 million tons. The Maracaibo and the lower Orinoco basins are chief centres of operations. The Maracaibo basin is responsible for 2/3rd of Venezuela's production. With the help of ocean tankers, oil is taken to Aruba and Curacao, which have some of the world's largest refineries. Venezuela has 10% of the world's estimated reserves of oil.
Colombia It has two important oil producing regions the
(1) lower-middle Magdalena valley and
(2) the extreme southwestern part of the Maracaibo lowland. In 1985 her production rose to 11 million metric tons. The oil fields are connected with ocean shipping facilities by pipelines more than 400 miles long.
Argentina The country has experienced steady growth since 1913. The production rose from 0.4 million metric tons in 1948 to 0.8 million metric tons in 1988. The principal centre of production is the Comodoro Rivadavia field, 900 miles south of Buenos Aires. Most of the output in Argentina is produced by a government oil company.
Peru: The fields are in the northwestern part of the country along the Pacific Coast, south of the Gulf of Gayaquil. The oil is of mixed asphalt and paraffin base. She produced 2.5 million metric tons in 1985.
Europe The structure of rocks in the western and southern Europe are so broken and disturbed that it does not seem probable that any extensive oil areas will be found out. Romania and Russia lead all the European countries in oil production.
Romania: She has four important districts on the plains to the east of the Carpathian Mountains. Modern development began in 1866. Much of the crude oil is refined inside the country. The largest oilfield is in Damboritza valley, Parhova Buan and Bacan. The first two are responsible for 54% and 44% respectively of the country's output. The production of crude petroleum rose from 4.1 million metric tons 1948 to 20 million metric tons in 1988.
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