Word: petroleum
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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With shortages of gasoline, heating fuel and other petroleum products gripping the nation, it is easy to overlook an important fact: the U.S. is still by far the world's largest oil producer. In 1972 U.S. wells pumped out 9.4 million...
...existing well produces in excess of its output during a 1973 base period. In response, oilmen have sped the pumping of existing wells to their Maximum Efficient Rates* and made greater use of expensive secondary recovery methods, such as injecting water at high pressure into a well. The American Petroleum Institute estimates that as much as 5,000,000 bbl. might be recovered in this fashion. As Wayne Swearingen, chairman of Tulsa's oil-drilling LVO Corp. puts it: "Old oil wells don't die; they just become uneconomical. We are going to see an increase...
...standout exception: the handful of underdeveloped countries that happen to be oil producers, including Iran, Indonesia, Nigeria, Venezuela and several Arab states, have struck a bonanza. Indeed, they could now afford to help their underdeveloped brethren, by setting a lower price on oil exported to poor countries than on petroleum sold to industrialized lands. In the past, however, oil producers have turned a deaf ear to pleas that they organize such a two-price market. They have argued, probably correctly, that it would lead to a black market that would siphon off the low-priced fuel to the rich countries...
...full impact of the oil cutback is still unclear, though there is general agreement that the economy eventually will adjust and continue to grow, despite its reduced energy diet, largely because businessmen and consumers will be forced to change their wasteful ways. Moreover, it now seems that the petroleum shortfall will be less than the thoroughly disruptive 3.4 million bbl. per day originally anticipated. Still, the jittery psychological climate created by the threat has enabled oil-exporting countries to raise their prices to towering new levels, and that will further fuel raging inflation in all industrialized nations. Says Walter Heller...
...this is good news for the U.S. Eastern Seaboard, especially New England, which relies heavily on tropical refineries for its supply of residual oil to run electric power plants, factories and ships. The little-known New England Petroleum Corp. (Nepco), which owns 65% of Borco (Standard Oil Co. of California owns the rest), is a leading supplier of residual oil and other petroleum products to electric utilities in the Northeast, including New York City's Con Edison. The company also owns a string of 250 gas stations in Eastern Canada, operates wells in Abu Dhabi and Texas, and claims...