ABSTRACT
The petrochemical industry was born in the early twentieth century in Germany and the United States and became one of the largest industrial sectors of modern developed societies after the Second World War. The spatial location of the petrochemical industry in proximity to oil and natural gas fields, as well as its organization in petrochemical complexes adjacent to or downstream from refineries, to take advantage of intra- or intercompany economies of scale, is due to historical, macro-economic, and micro-economic aspects. The historical aspects that determined this industrial agglomeration are related to the process of inventing new refining technologies by oil companies—motivated by the demand-pull for fuels and strategic materials during World War Two—that allowed the commercial use of previously wasted by-products. Downstream from the petrochemical industry a variety of industries may consume its products: the auto industry, the construction industry, the packaging industry, the textile industry, and the toy industry, among many others.
