ABSTRACT
By 1900, mineral oil had also been found in Russia and Indonesia. In 1908, British geologists working for William Knox D’Arcy struck oil leading to the discovery of a large oilfield in Iran. Over the years since 1900, oil production has come mainly from the United States, the Middle East, Venezuela, Indonesia and Russia. For several reasons, oil exploration and production is now being carried out offshore in many areas, in depths of water of 600 feet or more. Production in America almost doubled in each decade until 1910, then the rate of increase slackened following the expansion of oil refineries to produce petrol and other refinery products. Discoveries of the older precious and base metals occurred across a wide area of the world, following a tremendous surge of exploration activity. The California territory was to be ceded from Mexico under the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo only nine days later than the date of the actual discovery.
