AbstractsEconomics

Petroleum is a hydrocarbon known in its liquid state as oil and in its gaseous state as natural gas. It is usually found in the sedimentary basins which make up about one-third of the earth's land surface. Well over a century ago, it came into increasingly general use as a lubricant, and through one of its many derivitives, kerosene, as an energy source. This latter use has since been enhanced powerfully by the rapid industrialization of the western world, the invention of the combustion engine, the decline of coal, and numerous other developments that have characterized the twentieth century.