Oil history - Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia currently produces about 11 million barrels of oil per day, edging out Russia and the U.S. to rank first in the world in production, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The desert kingdom also has proven reserves of more than 260 billion barrels — spread among numerous fields (though most reside in a handful of giant fields) — amounting to about one-fifth of the world’s total. The country exports more oil than any other and exerts an undeniably prominent influence on the world oil market from its seat in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).
With a resumé like that and three-quarters of a century of oil-rich history to recall, it is almost unfathomable that Saudi Arabia was once considered a risky proposition for oil companies seeking new sources of crude. That perception began to change after the first commercially viable well was drilled there in 1938. But when two geologists — Robert Miller and Schuyler Henry — employed by Standard Oil of California (Socal) arrived in the Saudi Arabian port town of Jubail on Sept. 23, 1933, the vast expanse of the Arabian Desert that lay before them was still very much an unknown prospect.
Oil history - Latin America
8.3 million currently produces barrels of oil per day.
Latin America and the Caribbean is a region that stands out in the global energy sector. It boasts extraordinary natural resources – both fossil fuels and renewable energy – and a significant share of the world’s critical minerals. It also has a history of ambitious policy making in pursuit of stronger energy security and greater sustainability that has delivered one of the cleanest electricity mixes in the world. As the region emerges from a period of sluggish economic growth, countries in Latin America and the Caribbean now stand to leverage these resources to revitalize their economies and improve the security and sustainability of energy around the world.
1916. Petroleum was known to exist in Bolivia since 1600s, but serious exploration did not begin until 1916. In that year the government granted large concessions to foreigner investors (Braden company). In 1920, it granted further important concessions to the Richmond Levering and Company and the entrepreneur Jacobo Backus. The Backus concession was sought by Royal Dutch Shell but abandoned in 1924 for lack of results. The Braden and Richmond concessions were taken over by Standard Oil of New Jersey, which managed to bypass a 1921 law limiting new concessions extensions to 100,000 hectares. Standard aim was to produce oil from fields discovered in the southeastern part of the country and export it via pipeline to the Parana River in Argentina.
1917. Cabinas, Venezuela’s first giant field and part of the Bolivar Coastal Complex, was discovered and put in production.
1922. Yacimientos Petroliferos Fiscales (YPF), the national petroleum company of Argentina is the first vertically integrated state-owned company in Latin America (FIG. 7).
1924. Roxana Oil Company, a subsidiary of SHELL, hired the Schlumberger brother’s electrical prospection company to analyze petroleum fields in Venezuela. Electrical coring/logs are used for the first time in Latin America.
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