Oil in the Middle East (Southwest Asia)

Oil and Natural Gas Two of the most important natural resources found in Southwest Asia are natural gas and oil. These two resources bring wealth into the region because they are needed for much of the world’s economy. Over half of the world’s known oil reserves are found in the Middle East. Countries with access to oil often have much more money than countries without access to oil.

The Middle East became extremely important as well as increasingly wealthy, especially as they gradually took control of the oil production for foreign entities. Crude oil gets drilled up from the ground and is transported either to refineries or to tankers. The refineries refine the oil into other products, e.g. gasoline, kerosene, diesel, and others. The oil tankers transport the oil from SW Asia to other places, such as Texas City.

Supertankers!

The largest supertanker in the world is the Knock Nevis It’s 1504 feet long, 226 feet wide, and sits 80 feet in the water when fully loaded. It weighs 1,428,496,250 pounds and can carry 127,100,000 gallons of oil (4 million barrels a day) She’s so big, she can’t navigate the Panama Canal, the Suez Canal, or even the English Channel. The big worry with tankers is oil spills, such as the Exxon Valdez back in 1989. The US uses 18.8 million barrels per day, according to the EIA. Top 5 Countries U.S : 18.8 MBD China: 8.3 Japan: 4.4 India: 3.1 Russia: 2.7

Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries - OPEC In the 1960’s, several Southwest Asian countries joined with other oil-rich countries around the world to create the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in order to have more control over the price of oil on the world market. Countries belonging to OPEC control the daily production of oil which in turn controls the price of oil on the world market.