ABSTRACT
Although oil production is located around the globe, it is particularly associated with the Middle East. The United States has been, and indeed still is, a major producer (but not exporter) of oil and there are also numerous areas of oil production outside the Middle East - the ex-Soviet Union, Alaska, the North Sea, Latin America and Northern Africa - all of which play an important part in this history of the oil crises of the 1970s. Nonetheless, even when the Middle East is not the predominant source of production at any particular time, it is still at the heart of the oil industry. The Arabian Peninsula in particular can increase production rapidly if required, it has the largest volume of domestic production available for the world market, and the region possesses the largest known oil reserves in the world.
