ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how oil companies with the support of public planning and private corporations have co-shaped the landscapes and mindscapes of the Randstad through transformation, transport, consumption, administration, and promotion of petroleum in parallel with other actors. It argues that in parallel with the physical construction of oil landscapes the oil companies (with the help of car manufacturers and other enterprises including design) promoted the emergence of a very different mindscape. Through four sections—industrial, retail, ancillary, and imaginary—the chapter examines how oil companies and the public sector established the foundations for the Randstad oil cluster in the early years of the industry and established a petroleumscape that shapes spatial practices and mindsets. Parallel to the industrial petroleumscape, with its spaces of production and transport that includes elements such as refineries with a long span of life, another petroleumscape emerged that was more short-lived and much closer to the consumer: gas or petrol stations.
