The role of oil in the economy and politics became the leading one in the 20th century, as the consumption of its derivatives increased. The development and mass use of internal combustion engines significantly increased the consumption of fuel oil, kerosene, gasoline and solar fuel, and the use of black gold fractions as chemical raw materials for the production of plastics from the 50s created a situation in which industrial countries can no longer do without hydrocarbons.
Each oil field in Russia has its own history, sometimes numbering only two to three decades, and sometimes measured over centuries. DI. Mendeleev, foreseeing the enormous role of the chemical industry, in the 19th century prophetically compared the burning of this valuable raw material in furnaces with an attempt to keep warm from the flame of burning bank notes. The defense significance of a hydrocarbon is expressed by a no less expressive metaphor - “blood of war”.
The oldest oil field in Russia is located in the North Caucasus; production has been conducted here for more than a century and a half. Due to such prolonged use, the layers are fairly well developed, and the voids formed between the deep soil layers are filled with water. Nevertheless, the Rostov region, Dagestan, North Ossetia, Kabardino-Balkaria, Ingushetia and Chechnya, as well as the Krasnodar Territory and Stavropol Territory, all contribute to hydrocarbon production.
The acceleration of industrial development that took place at the beginning of the 20th century prompted the intensification of production in the Volga-Ural region. This oil field in Russia is the most studied, but, like the Caucasus, it has been exploited for a long time. Tatarstan, Bashkiria, the Samara region and other European regions are important, despite the relatively small volumes of extracted raw materials. Their value is in a convenient geographical position, which leads to lower transportation costs and high quality, determined by the low content of sulfur and paraffins.
The beginning of the 60s of the XX century was marked by the rapid development of the wealth of Western Siberia. Nizhnevartovsk, Surgut, Kholmogorsk, Ust-Balyk became the largest hydrocarbon production centers.
Thus, 90% of hydrocarbon production falls on the main oil fields in Russia, which are located in Western Siberia (67%) and the Volga-Ural region (25%).
Shelf zones of the Kara, Barents, Caspian and Okhotsk seas, as well as polar possessions have become promising at present. A unique mine production of “heavy oil” is carried out near Usinsk, where the Timan-Pechora field is located.
There is a lot of oil in Russia, our country ranks sixth in the world in its production. However, the fact that in recent years geological work has been carried out in remote and inaccessible regions, where production is problematic due to severe weather conditions, and subsequent transportation requires the construction of long pipelines, suggests that a significant increase in volumes should not be expected.
Promising markets are the countries of Southeast Asia, in which over the past decades there has been a significant increase in industrial production. The pipeline is being built in the Pacific, it will connect China and the East Siberian oil field in Russia. The map of hydrocarbon arteries is becoming increasingly branched. They stretch both east and west, but at the same time they sell mostly crude oil. Its processing is already carried out abroad, and profits from technologically complex industries are deposited on the accounts of foreign industrial corporations. What to do?
There is only one way out: a raw material export should be replaced by a sale of a product with a maximum surplus value. The development of our own chemical processing industry is an inevitable way to maximize the rational use of natural resources inherited from our ancestors.