ABSTRACT
The total world output of crude oil exceeded 1000 million metric tons for the first time in 1960. Just one decade earlier production had exceeded 500 million tons for the first time so that in the 1950s the annual average increase in output was of the order of 7 per cent. In both 1960 and 1961 an additional 70 million tons was produced and by mid-1962 output was running at a level of over 1150 million tons. The world pattern of production in 1961 is illustrated in Figure 2.
