The petroleum industry grew through the 1800s !ecoming a
leading
international industry as the "0th century progressed.
Today#s top $ oil producing countries% &audi Ara!ia
'ussia
80% of the world’s accessible reserves are in the Middle
East.
Saudi Arabia
1)11 1st true -o**+shore oil rig set on a *i/ed
plat*orm in 1 *eet o* water
!ut only 1 mile o**+shore2.
locating oil
e/ploratory drilling2
designed to !e mo4ed
ne/t with relati4e ease.
drilling unit.
) &+&1 fields were found in the 2ulf of Me*ico with
++
e*3lorator) wells.
An oil well in the Timor Sea, o the coast of Western Australia,
began leaking, and the latform subse!uently caught "re# The well
sewed oil for more than two months, leaking as much as $,%%%
barrels a day &',$(',%%% gallons) for *+ days before it was
caed, making it one of the worst sills in Australian history#
ontara, Australia, $%%-.
A tanker hit a rig o the coast of /ran, and the rig began leaking
(,0%% barrels a day# 1ecause /ran and /ra! were at war, the oil 2ow
was not stoed, and the latform was later attacked by /ra!i
warlanes# 3ater, a second latform was attacked, and initially
silled 0,%%% barrels a day before slowing to (,0%%# Two years assed
before /ran caed the wells, but b then o4er *55,%%%
Nowruz oil eld, Persian Gul, !"#$.
A blowout at a well "4e miles o the coast of Santa 1arbara caused a
leak that 2owed for (( days and 6%,%%% to (%%,%%% barrels
&+',$%%,%%% gallons) were released# According to a reort by the
9ni4ersity of :alifornia, Santa 1arbara, the sill aected 6%% s!uare
miles of ocean and coated 50 miles of coastline with oil#
Santa 1arbara, :alif#, (-'-.
8enerally considered the fourth largest oil sill in history, the
/xtoc sill occurred when the exican state<owned 7emex was
drilling an exloratory well in shallow water in the 1ay of :ameche#
The /xtoc suered a blowout, and more than 5 million barrels
&($',%%%,%%% gallons) of oil gushed from the well for more than
nine months before engineers were able to ca it# The sill
contaminated more than ('$
/xtoc / oil sill, 8ulf of exico, (-*-.
The =eewater Hori>on drilling rig exloded due to a methane
gas release on Aril, $%, $%(%, immediately killing (( and in?uring
(* latform workers# On @uly (0, $%(%, the leak was stoed, howe4er
$%' million gallons of oil had already silled into the 8ulf# /n
addition to the oil, more than (#6 million gallons of disersant
were released into the 8ulf#
Gul o %e&i'o, ()!)*
6htt.en#wikiedia#orgwiki3istBofBoilBsills