Abstract
MIDDLE EAST oil is again prominent in the American Technical Fross, this time in a paper entitled "The Place Middle East Oil will occupy in World Markets", read by C. J. Bauer, of the Standard Oil Company, New Jersey, at the annual meeting for 1948 of the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers. As is now generally appreciated, the function of Middle East oil, once pipe-lines to the Mediterranean are completed, will be to relieve the strain on western hemisphere petroleum resources, that is to say, the United States and Caribbean region, from which at present most of West European oil is derived. The year 1951 appears to be the crucial factor ; by then it is anticipated that the annual world demand will be about 140 thousand million Imperial gallons. This will require new capital investment in the industry of £2,500 million before that year. Consumption is estimated by 1951 in the ratio of 6·3 million barrels per day for the United States as against 4·4 million for the rest of the world ; in other words, there should be more petrol available for the so-called Marshall Plan countries which, unhappily, at present constitute the largest petroleum-deficient area in the world. By the same tokens, it is anticipated that the United States will practically cease to export oil and oil products to Europe by 1951, the Caribbean and Middle East regions then being the main sources of supply for Europe. The author stresses the recognition of the four great oil regions of the world, East Mediterranean basin, the Caribbean basin, the Far East basin and the North Polar basin ; nowhere else are future oil supplies of magnitude likely to be found. Taking the long view, the bulk of Middle East supplies are destined for Europe ; the Caribbean will furnish the major part of oil supplies to the western hemisphere ; Asia, Australia and New Zealand will draw mainly on the Far East basin (when rehabilitated) ; and the North Polar basin, not yet in production, is destined to supply both North Axnerica and Russia. This is a far-sighted review of the world‘s oil situation, and it is presented in a form which, aided by extremely informative diagrams, is readily understandable to the layman. Copies of the paper may be obtained on application to the Anglo-American Oil Company, London.
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The Oil Position in 1951. Nature 163, 241–242 (1949). https://doi.org/10.1038/163241f0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/163241f0