World Geography

Oil & Water: Precious Resources

Resources for a Modern World

• Oil is most abundant resouce
• Major oil fields are located on Arabian Peninsula, Iran, and Iraq, with natural gas fields close by
• These fossil fuels run cars and trucks, factories, and power plants all over the world-so provide major portion of income

An Oil-Rich Region

• About 1/2 world's oil reserves are found in Southwest Asia
• Presence of oil reserves make the region important because so many countries, including the U.S., depend on its oil

Oil from the Sand

• Oil and natural gas deposits were formed millions of years ago when an ancient sea covered SW Asia
• Microscopic plants & animals lived and died in the waters, their remains sank and became mingled with the sand and mud on the bottom of the sea
• Over time, pressure and heat transformed the material into hydrocarbons, which form the chemical basis of oil and natural gas
• Oil and natural gas do not exist in large pools beneath the ground, but are trapped inside rocks
• Egineers use sophisticated equipment to extract, or remove, the oil

Early Exploration

• Industrialization and the increasing popularity of automobiles made petroleum a highly desired resource
• Beginning in late 1800s, oil companies searched all over the world for oil resources
• First SW Asia discovery of oil was in 1908 in Persia (Iran), then in the Arabian Peninsula, and the Persian Gulf, etc.

Transporting Oil

• Petroleum that has not been processed is called "crude oil"
• After being pumped from the ground, crude oil must be transported to a refinery that will convert it into useful products
• Pipelines transport crude oil either to refineries or to ports where tankers pick it up and move it

Risks of Transporting Oil

• Moving oil always involves the risk of oil spills
• Largest oil spill ever recorded occurred in 1991, during the Persian Gulf War, when a series of tankers and oil storage terminals in Kuwait and on islands off its coast were blown up-more than 240 million gallons of crude oil were spilled into the water and on land
• Buried pipelines in SW Asia help reduce the danger of above ground accidents, but they do happen
• Ocean-going tankers are a much greater risk; many operate in shallow and narrow waterways where spills from collisions or running around are a risk

Oil Dominates the Economy

• Principal resource is oil
• When oil prices are high, Arabian Peninsula countries are able to spend money into development of other parts of their economy, i.e. water development projects
• 1960, group of oil producing nations, including Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, established an organization to coordinate policies on selling petroleum products-called Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)
• Purpose of OPEC is to help members control worldwide oil prices by adjusting oil prices and production quotas
• Qatar, UAE, Iran, and Iraq are also members of OPEC

Control of Oil Fields

• Discoveries of oil in 1908 made Iran a center of conflict of the oil fields
• British and Russians clashed
• Between 1980 and 1990, Iran & Iraq fought a war over control of oil fields
• Access to oil-rich regions on the Persian Gulf is strategically important for all nations that import oil
• 1990-1991, Iraq invaded Kuwait, starting the Persian Gulf War; the U.S. and 32 other nations fought to drive the Iraqis out of Kuwait and keep the oil fields open

Providing Precious Water

• Even though oil brings a great deal of money into SW Asia, the most critical resource is water
• Challenge of finding reliable, fresh water supplies has existed since ancient times

Dams and Irrigation Systems

• To meet demands of large farms and growing populations, countries have to build dams and irrigation systems
• Several countries use "drip irrigation"-using small pipes that slowly drip water just above ground to conserve water used for crops
• Other nations are developing ways to use ocean water, such as "desalinization"-removal of salt
• "Fossil water" is also pumped from underground aquifers, but there isn't enough rainfall to recharge aquifers and only about 25-30 years of water usage is left
• Top priority of region is finding ways to conserve and reuse water

Other Resources

• In mountainous lands, such as Turkey, Iran, Lebanon, and Afghanistan, water is plentiful compared with the rest of the region
• Efforts to conserve water have been part of the culture of the people in most of SW Asia for 1000s of years
• SW Asia has deposits of other resources such as coal, metallic minerals such as copper, and non-metallic minerals such as potash and phosphates-However, the deposits are scattered and not very large