WORLD DISTRIBUTION OF OIL PRODUCTION The world production of crude petroleum, as well as proven re serves, is in four main divisions : (I) The United States of Amer ica; (2) the Latin American countries (Venezuela, Mexico, Colom bia, Argentina, Trinidad, Ecuador, and Bolivia) ; (3) European and Western Asiatic Countries (Russia, Rumania, Poland, Iran, and Iraq) ; (4) Far Eastern Countries (Netherlands India, British India, Borneo, and Japan).
The first and most important division, the United States of America, has been developed with outstanding success under pri vate commercial enterprise. The Latin American countries have been developed under private enterprise of foreign capital, with recent reversals of this trend in the case of Mexico, Bolivia, and the Argentine Republic, which have embarked upon national istic, yet somewhat dissimilar programs.
In Europe and Western Asia, oil development is under govern ment control and regulation either through state monopoly, strict and inhibitive state regulations through the nationalization of natural resources, or direct government participation. In the
Far East—with the exception of Japan, whose production and reserves are negligible—private capital has been responsible for oil exploration and exploitation with minor exceptions. Japan has fostered oil production at home and in controlled territories by subsidies.
The corporate enterprises engaged in world-wide petroleum ac tivities in the four great spheres of petroleum production and reserves are primarily of American, British, and Dutch ownership and control. The states exercising direct monopoly or control or participating directly in producing operations, are Mexico, Bo livia, Argentina, Russia, Rumania, Poland, Iran, and Iraq.