Task 3. Read the text and give Russian equivalents to the italicized words and expressions:

The Petroleum Industry

The petroleum industry is one of the world's largest industries. It has four major branches. The production branch explores for oil and brings it to the surface. The transportation branch sends crude oil to refineries and delivers the refined products to consumers. The manufacturing branch processes crude oil into useful products. The marketing branch sells and distributes the products to consumers. Gasoline service stations handle the largest share of these sales. Oil companies sell their petroleum products directly to factories, power plants, and transportation-related industries.

The petroleum industry plays a large role in the economy of many nations. In developed countries it provides jobs for a great many people. It also is a major buyer of iron, steel, motor vehicles, and many other products. In certain developing but oil-rich countries, petroleum exports furnish most of the national income. Petroleum is also a source of political power for such countries because many other nations depend on them for fuel.

Surface deposits of crude oil have been known to humans for thousands of years. They were long used for such limited purposes as caulking boats, waterproofing cloth, and fuelling torches. By the time of the Renaissance, some surface deposits were being distilled to obtain lubricants and medicinal products, but the real exploitation of crude oil did not begin until the 19th century. The Industrial Revolution had by then brought about a search for new fuels, and the social changes it effected had produced a need for good, cheap oil for lamps; people wished to be able to work and read after dark. Whale oil, however, was available only to the rich, tallow candles had an unpleasant odour, and gas jets were available only in then-modern houses and apartments in metropolitan areas.

The search for a better lamp fuel led to a great demand for "rock oil"—that is, crude oil—and various scientists in the mid-19th century were developing processes to make commercial use of it. Thus James Young of England, with others, began to manufacture various products from crude oil, but he later turned to coal distillation and the exploitation of oil shales. The Canadian physician and geologist Abraham Gessner in 1852 obtained a patent for producing from crude oil a relatively clean-burning, affordable lamp fuel called kerosene; and in 1855 an American chemist, Benjamin Silliman, published a report indicating the wide range of useful products that could be derived through the distillation of petroleum.

Thus the quest for greater supplies of crude oil began. For several years people had known that wells drilled for water and salt were occasionally infiltrated by petroleum, so the concept of drilling for crude oil itself soon followed. The first such wells were dug in Germany in 1857-59, but the event that gained world fame was the drilling of an oil well near Oil Creek, Pennsylvania, by "Colonel" Edwin L. Drake in 1859. Drake drilled to find the supposed "mother pool" from which the oil seeps of western Pennsylvania were assumed to be emanating. The reservoir Drake tapped was shallow—only 21.2 m (69.5 ft) deep—and the petroleum was a paraffin type that flowed readily and was easy to distil. Drake’s success marked the beginning of the rapid growth of the modern petroleum industry. Soon petroleum received the attention of the scientific community, and coherent hypotheses were developed for its formation, migration upward through the earth, and entrapment. With the invention of the automobile and the energy needs brought on by World War I, the petroleum industry became one of the foundations of industrial society.

During the early 1900's, foreign oil companies began to develop the petroleum industry in various countries in the Middle East, Africa, and other parts of the world. These firms, most of which were American or European, received ownership of the oil they discovered and produced. In return, they paid thehost countries taxes and a share of the income from oil sales. Beginning in the 1950's, however, more and more host countries came to feel that they were not receiving a large enough share of the oil income. Today, many of these countries have acquired part or total control of the oil industry within their borders, either by negotiating with the foreign firms or by taking them over. A number of the countries belong to the powerful Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

OPEC, which was formed in 1960, consists of 12 nations that depend heavily on oil exports for their income. These nations include Libya, Nigeria, Venezuela, and the major oil-producing countries of the Middle East. OPEC members provide about 45 percent of all oil exports. Thus, the amount they produce and the prices they agree to charge largely determine the cost of petroleum. Industrialized countries are so dependent on imported oil that OPEC can use oil as an economic and political weapon. In the 1970's, OPEC raised oil prices so drastically that its members were able to increase their income from oil while restricting production.

Most experts predict that the worldwide demand for petroleum will continue to increase in the years ahead. They also predict that the world's dependence on oil from the Middle East will increase. In addition, many experts believe that oil will become scarce sometime in the mid-2000's unless large new deposits are found. However, the only long-range solution to the energy crisis is the introduction of alternative sources of fuel.

 

Answer the following questions:

1. What are the main branches of the petroleum industry?

2. What has been important for the development of the petroleum industry?

3. Which areas of the world have the most oil?

4. What is OPEC?

5. Why is petroleum also a source of political power? Give some examples.

 

Add several statements to make the text coherent and complete using the given words and expressions, draw a conclusion:

A. Petroleum conservation

The world's supply of oil is limited and will eventually run out. Some experts predict that if oil consumption continues to rise, existing petroleum reserves will be exhausted by the early 2000's…

There are almost as many ways to conserve petroleum as there are to use its products… conservation by the oil industry/ conservation by consumers: to maximize production, to reduce waste at oil fields and refineries, to become law, to set up regulatory commissions, to restrict the number of wells drilled, heat energy used in refining, to recycle excess heat, new catalysts, furnaces and heaters, most efficient temperatures, insulating pipes, tanks and other refinery equipment, recycling waste products, to be legally enforced.

In the home, common sense is often the best guide… fuel consumption, fuel-efficient cars, driving within speed limits, storm windows, weather stripping, furnace thermostat, air-conditioning, solar energy, public transportation.