Е. С. Закирова, П. А. Красавин Английский язык для технических вузов
MODULE 13 THE HISTORY OF OIL PRODUCTION
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THE HISTORY OF OIL PRODUCTION Many centuries ago, Native Americans used crude oil for fuel and medi- cine. But the start of the oil industry as it is known today can be traced back to 1859. In that year, retired railroad conductor Edwin L. Drake drilled a well near Titusville, Pennsylvania. The well, powered by an old steam engine, soon produced oil and sparked an oil boom. By the 1860s, wooden derricks had cov- ered the hills of western Pennsylvania. In 1865, the first successful oil pipeline was built from an oil field near Titusville to a railroad station five miles away. From there, railcars transported oil to refineries on the Atlantic coast. The business of refining oil was largely the domain of John D. Rockefeller. The New York-born industrialist financed his first refinery in 1862. Then he went on to buy out competitors, and, along with his brother, William, and sev- 279 eral associates, he created Standard Oil Company. By 1878, Rockefeller had controlled 90 per cent of the oil refineries in the United States. Drilling for oil spread quickly beyond Pennsylvania. By 1900, Texas, Cali- fornia, and Oklahoma had taken the lead in oil production, and eleven other states had had active oil deposits. Annual U.S. oil production climbed from two thousand barrels in 1859 to 64 million barrels in 1900. Other countries were also getting into the oil business. Russia was producing slightly more than the United States around the beginning of the twentieth century. Smaller pro- ducers were Italy, Canada, Poland, Peru, Venezuela, Mexico, and Argentina. The first major oil discovery in the Middle East occurred in Iran in 1908. Pros- pectors struck oil in Iraq in 1927 and in Saudi Arabia in 1938. The demand for petroleum products became even greater after World War II. Petroleum use in the United States went from about 1.75 billion barrels in 1946 to almost 2.5 billion barrels in 1950. By the early 1950s, petroleum had replaced coal as the country’s chief fuel. And plastic was the primary reason. жүктеу/скачать 4,38 Mb. Достарыңызбен бөлісу:
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