Oil around the world: the Middle East is a vital source of the world's oil supply.The world relies on oil for gasoline gasoline or petrol, light, volatile mixture of hydrocarbons for use in the internal-combustion engine and as an organic solvent, obtained primarily by fractional distillation and "cracking" of petroleum, but also obtained from natural gas, by , heating fuel, electricity, and many other products. The countries of the Middle East, Including iraq Iraq or Irak (both: ēräk`, ĭrăk`), officially Republic of Iraq, republic (2005 est. pop. 26,075,000), 167,924 sq mi (434,924 sq km), SW Asia. , produce most of the world's oil, giving them a key role in the global economy. The U.S. consumes an average of about 19.7 million barrels of oil per day. But the U.S. produces only about 8.2 million barrels of oil per day. The rest is Imported from other countries. The following graph shows the world's oh supply, broken down by region. Study the graph, then answer the questions below.
WORLD SUPPLY OF OIL BY REGION (2001)
SUPPLY (IN BILLIONS
REGION OF BARRELS)
AFRICA 76.7
ASIS-PACIFIC 43.8
EUROPE 18.7
MIDDLE EAST 685.6
NORTH AMERICA 63.9
SOUTH & CENTRAL AMERICA 96.0
FORMER SOVIET UNION 65.4
SOURCE: BP STATISTICAL REVIEW OF WORLD ENERGY 2002
Note: Table made from bar graph
1. Which region on the graph has the smallest supply of oil? 2. Which region on the graph has an oil supply of approximately ap·prox·i·mate adj. 1. Almost exact or correct: the approximate time of the accident. 2. 77 billion barrels? 3. About how many barrels of oil are stored in South and Central America Central America, narrow, southernmost region (c.202,200 sq mi/523,698 sq km) of North America, linked to South America at Colombia. It separates the Caribbean from the Pacific. ? 4. How much more oil is stored in North America North America, third largest continent (1990 est. pop. 365,000,000), c.9,400,000 sq mi (24,346,000 sq km), the northern of the two continents of the Western Hemisphere. than in the Asia-Pacific The term Asia-Pacific generally applies to littoral East Asia, Southeast Asia and Australasia near the Pacific Ocean, plus the states in the ocean itself (Oceania). region? 5. Which two regions are closest to one another in the size of their oil supplies? 6. Which is larger: the oil supply of the Middle East or the total supply of the six other regions on the graph? |
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