Exercise 29. Make up your own story about the oil and gas industry according to

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ADDITIONAL READING
Exercise 32. Make a summary of the text using the following phrases: 
1. The title of the text is… 
2. The text is about… The text deals with… 
3. The text covers such points as… first… second… third… 
4. It should be underlined that… 
5. In conclusion, I may say that… 
6. To my mind… In my opinion…
PETROCHEMISTRY
All spheres of modern life are directly connected with chemical products. 
Petrochemistry has one of the key roles in the production of polymers, syn-
thetic rubbers, lubricating oils, dissolvent, colorants, additives, detergents, and 
raw materials for most organic compounds.
Petrochemistry is a science that can readily be applied to fundamental hu-
man needs, such as health, hygiene, housing, and food. Yet, it is an inventive 
business sector constantly adapting to new environments and meeting new 
challenges.
Chemicals derived from petroleum or natural gas — petrochemicals — are 
an essential part of the chemical industry today. Today, the main purposes of 
petrochemistry are the study and development of methods of hydrocarbons, 
natural gas and other oil component processing for the creation of optimal 
processes of producing organic compounds. The organic compounds are used 
as raw material for production of the marketable chemical products (such as 
polymers, films, synthetic rubbers, detergents, lubricants, colorants, additives, 
etc.). Most organic compounds are “petrochemical”, but usually this term is 
applied to the products, which are made in relatively large quantities.
Petrochemistry is a fairly young industry. According to the opinion of Rus-
sian scientists, the beginning of the petrochemistry development is 1920, when 
the American company “Standard Oil” started to produce isopropyl alcohol 
from propylene. The first petrochemical plant, involved in ethylene produc-
tion, was put in operation in 1923 by another American company — Union 
Carbide.
Before then, it used to be an experimental sector, starting with basic ma-
terials: synthetic rubbers in the 1900s, Bakelite, the first petrochemical derived 
in 1907, the first petrochemical in the 1920s, polystyrene in the 1930.
The new industry started to grow rapidly only in the 1940s, more than 
80 years after the drilling of the first commercial oil well in 1859. During World 
War II, the demand for materials to replace costly and sometimes less efficient 

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products caused the petrochemical industry to develop into a major sector in 
today’s economy and society.
The petrochemistry industry includes an incredible variety of areas — from 
household goods to medicine, from leisure to highly specialized fields like ar-
chaeology or crime detection.
However, all this is little known. Petrochemicals do not reach the final 
consumer; they are first sold to customer industries, undergo several transfor-
mations, and then go into products that seem to bear no relation whatsoever 
to the initial raw material. As a result, few of us make the connection between 
the petrochemical industry and their equipment, their CDs, food packaging 
or computers; few realize the amount of scientific efforts that went into these 
commonplace objects.
Although benefiting daily from end products that have been made thanks 
to the input of the petrochemical industry, we don’t see an obvious connection 
between these everyday commodities and petrochemistry.

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