Regions continued Middle East

The world s largest petroleum reseiwes, in Turkey and the Middle East, were discovered just prior to World War I. Exploration and production continued to expand throughout the region in the 1920s, and culminated in the discoveiy of the vast oil resources of Saudi Arabia in 1938. 

South-East Asia continues to be the main market for such stimulants, accounting for 42 per cent of total seizures in 2005, followed by North America (17 %) and West and Central Europe (16 %). Other important regions include the Near and Middle East (11 %) and Africa (9 %). The proportion of seizures made in East and South-East Asia in 2005 was clearly higher than in 2004 (28 %), but remained below the average of the 2000-2005 period (49 %). 

However, while stranded gas supplies are essentially unlimited, access to low-cost ethane for ethylene plants does have limits. Ethane supplies are developed only with natural gas or crude oil production regional consumption and LNG demand will set the demand for natural gas, while OPEC will determine crude oil output. We estimate that the available ethane in the Middle East could only cover about 40 percent of all new worldwide ethylene demand through 2010, by which date the region s ethylene market share would reach 17 percent. Even if stranded natural gas and ethane in other locations are put to use, they will be far from covering all demand growth, and chemical producers will need to continue to rely on the established types of feedstock, while at the same time considering alternatives (Fig. 16.5). 

Gas production incneasad in every region except North Amarica, where US output continued to decline. The largest increases were in Russia, the Netherlands, China and the Middle East. European output rose despite the continued decline in the UK. 

The society was founded in October 1911 as the United Society of Casualty Inspectors. This nonprofit organization is the only organization of individual safety professionals. It works to promote the safety profession and foster the professional development of its members. The American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) plays an important role in the development of safety standards. The society continues to expand its focus in the United States and also operates chapters in the Middle East and Great Britain. A 25-member board of directors that includes 13 regional vice presidents guides the ASSE. The society operates 138 chapters to promote, establish, and maintain standards for the safety profession. 

Distilled Water and Desalination. Tap water commonly contains dissolved salts that contribute to its overall hardness. These are removed through distillation to provide distilled water for use in automobile batteries and radiators, steam irons, and other applications where pure water is beneficial. Specialized stills fed with continuously flowing tap water are used to prepare distilled water in chemistry laboratories however, deionized water is becoming an increasingly popular and more convenient alternative. Seawater can be similarly distilled to provide potable drinking water. Desalination of seawater is especially important in arid and semi-arid regions of the Middle East, where the abundant sunshine is used in solar distillation facilities. 

This market forecast is in sharp contrast to predictions made in the period from 1995-2005, in which business executives correctly assumed that polyethylene capacity would most likely not undergo much growth in North America due to the need to import natural gas and a continuing decrease in the production of crude oil. The likelihood of importing additional crude oil, natural gas and polyethylene from the Middle East region seemed inevitable. 

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